


I'll fix it for you

by YumeMadarame



Series: Revenge, and a little bit more [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Fix-It, Kurama Swears A Lot, Kurama's POV (most of the time), M/M, Memory Loss, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2020-05-13 13:48:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 40,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19252450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YumeMadarame/pseuds/YumeMadarame
Summary: Kurama wakes up in the dark, trapped inside a human body.The memory loss doesn't help.TheUchihabody either.





	1. In the dark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody, this is my first fic ever on the Naruto fandom, and also the first that I post on Ao3.  
> I got inspired to write this after reading blackkat's wonderful fic [reverse](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5339486/chapters/12328958) ^^
> 
> I don't wanna spoil too much until I've posted more chapters, so there are a lot of tags missing right now.  
> But what I can tell you is (to give a heads up) that at some point Kurama will be paired with a male character (not telling yet who, no spoil), but I'll probably put all the parts rated M and E together in another Work inside the Serie.
> 
> A huge thanks to my wonderful beta!  
> English isn't my first language, and it's been a while since I've finished reading Naruto, so if you see any mistakes don't hesitate to tell me about it!
> 
> Enjoy the fic!

 

 

He slowly woke up, coming back to his senses and blinking his eyes open, only to realize he was surrounded by complete darkness.

He tried to sit up when his head abruptly smacked against a hard surface. Well, back to laying down.

Not giving up, he began to map his surroundings with his hands, trying to get a feel of his surroundings, and of what exactly was above his head preventing him from getting up.

He combed through his memories, trying to figure out where he was, and how he got here.

Nothing.

Even worse: he realized he had no grasp on his own identity. Who was he? Panic was beginning to overwhelm him, but he forced himself to calm down. _Breath in, breath out_. Having a mental breakdown in an unknown place like this was just an awful idea.

After a few seconds shifting around, he came to the conclusion that he was trapped in a small, rectangular space. The very distinctive smell lingering around him and the rough texture beneath his fingers gave him an indication of the material the ‘walls’ were made from. Wood. So he was in a rectangular wooden box.

It also seemed like he was wearing a sort of kimono, hard to tell in the darkness and froze when he felt the right side folded on top of the left side. He had no idea what it meant, but the uneasiness he felt was an indication that it wasn’t a good thing.

Also, he had the sinking feeling he shouldn’t be wearing clothes in the first place, and that his body felt way too… _human_ for his taste. _Why was he feeling that way? Why couldn’t he remember anything?_

Before he had the time to process the meaning of his own feelings, a flashback abruptly hit him, and memories of an old man dressed in white came flooding back.

He wasn’t human.

He was a Bijū, a beast made of chakra, born alongside his eight other siblings when his father, the Sage of Six Paths, defeated and finally sealed the Jūbi by separating it in nine. He had been sealed away and passed down from one Uzumaki to the other, hated and feared by humans, used by Obito to destroy Konoha and then sealed again, until finally someone saw past his rage and his bitterness, past the monster, to see a companion, a friend.

Bright blond hair and a smile just as bright flashed in his mind.

_Naruto_

He remembered his own name as well: Kurama.

The crashing relief he felt was cut short.

He knew who he was, but he still had no idea of _where_ he was. And why was he in what seemed to be a human body? Did Naruto pass out and somehow the control of the body fall to Kurama?

No… something was off.

He wriggled around a bit, trying to map the contours of his frame with his hands. This body didn’t feel like Naruto’s.

This one was thinner, with longer hair and limbs, and it seemed like he had some small but pointy and sharp claws instead of the usual human nails on his hands and feet.

Unable to collect more information on his new body, he decided to flare his chakra, taking in his surroundings. At least it seemed like it hadn’t been affected by his transfer in this body. Short lived victory – _again_ – because what he learned did nothing to lighten his mood, in fact, it seemed like the box he was in was buried underground – which, in retrospective, was very probably a coffin – and he was the only soul inhabiting the body.

Also his chakra was _WAY_ too low. That wasn’t normal.

Another thing to add on the long list of abnormal things.

So somehow someone managed to extract his chakra from Naruto and dumb him into a random previously dead body. That raised alarms in his mind. The extraction of a Bijū meant sure death for their Jinchūriki, so if Kurama was here, that meant Naruto…

Kurama refused to finish his thoughts, Naruto was fine, he always found a way to emerge intact from the worst battles, with his stupid smiles and optimism as well as his tendency to make friends with almost everyone he met. Kurama closed his eyes. He _had to be_ fine.

New blurry memories suddenly came back to him in a flash.

  
  


_Naruto as a little boy, feet dangling from a swing_ _._

_Naruto, being acclaimed by the people of Konoha after defeating Pain._

_Naruto, standing_ _up_ _in the ruins of Konoha destroyed after the passage of Kaguya._

_Naruto, fighting alongside team 7 and what was left of the allied shinobi forces, to fend against the endless waves of the White Zetsu army._

  
  


_Naruto, smiling at him and extending his fist, eyes shining with the promises of a bright future. “You’re not the monster fox anymore. You’re a member of Konoha, together with me. You’re Kurama!”._

  
  


His eyes began to sting, and he rubbed at them with irritation. Damn these humans and their inclination to shed tears over even the slightest of emotionally charged situations.

He was going to find the one responsible of this mess and skin them alive, he needed to get back to Naruto… as soon as he managed to get out of there. He could have easily produced a substantially large explosion, destroying everything around him to get back to the surface, but he had no idea how his soul was bound to the body, and there was no telling how much it could withstand.

He couldn’t risk destroying this body before he was sealed into Naruto again. Of course he was a construct of chakra and therefore couldn’t die, but the reincarnation process was long, and there was the very real possibility of Naruto dying of old age before Kurama’s rebirth.

Just thinking about it made his stomach sink.

Thinking about all kinds of bad scenarios wasn’t helping his case, so he transformed his doubts into actions and began to attack the wood above him with his claws, rapidly forming a hole. When dirt started to fall inside the coffin he gathered it and pushed it at his feet, repeating the process until he could feel a hole in the wood big enough for his shoulders to pass, and slowly rose to a crouching position, allowed by the hole created in the dirt around the coffin hole.

_All right_ , he thought, _let’s get digging_.

  
  


  
  


A few hours later, an utterly pissed off Kurama finally emerged from the ground, naked and covered in mud, inhaling fresh air with delight. He had left the kimono halfway behind, in order not to slow him down, and at this point he really didn’t care if humans saw him naked. As a Tailed Beast, he had always been naked. Only humans were prudish enough to hide what they were born with. He could understand when the weather was cold, they had no fur after all, but when it was hot? All those unnecessary layers? It made absolutely no sense.

Looking around, he realized it was dark outside, probably the middle of the night. Although he was still able to discern his surroundings quite accurately. Seemed like his night vision had transferred to this human body as well. _Practical_.

He was in the far edge of a cemetery encircled by a small forest, white tombstones spreading so far he couldn’t see them all in the darkness and the thin fog swirling around. He frowned. The blanket of darkness was so thick it didn’t allow even his enhanced eyesight to see past the cemetery and the forest. But that wasn’t an unsolvable problem, he could definitely use his other senses and his chakra to get a feel of the area around, which he promptly used, and what he found baffled him.

It felt like Konoha.

That was impossible. Konoha had been destroyed years ago, when Kaguya first began her rampage throughout the continent. It had been almost the first hidden village to fall.

His eyes fell on the flat tombstone on the ground behind him, where the engraving of an upside down leaf confirmed his suspicions.

Did the Shinobi allied forces somehow rebuild Konoha while he was gone? That was impossible! He had only been gone for…

He had no idea how long.

He clenched his hands into fists, claws digging into his palms, closed his mouth shut and emitted a low growl. He still had a considerable part of his memories missing, especially the most recent ones. There was absolutely no telling how far his amnesia went. For all he knew, he could be missing months of memories.

_Or even decades_ , he thought with horror. A dull ache started to bloom in his chest, followed with light tremors shaking his entire frame.

He opened his eyes, not realizing he had closed them, and took several long breaths to calm his frantic heart.

_Calm down_ , he ordered himself. _Freaking out is not going to solve any of_ _your_ _problems._

A thought came to him… he still didn’t know whose body – or corpse, it seemed – he inhabited. At least his heart was pumping – he could feel it in his ears – the body smelled fresh, and the way he had managed to come out of the ground proved it was functional.

He was on the wrong side of the grave and couldn’t read the name written upside down on the stone, so he got around it in a few short steps and began to read… –

And was virtually sucker punched in the guts.

_No way._

There was no way this could be real.

That had to be a fucking joke.

Right?

He read the last name again, hoping it would magically disappear and be replaced with another one, _**any** _ other one. But no, the name stood there unchanged, every letter perfectly clear, mocking his distress.

Kurama closed his eyes, and slowly held his head in his hands.

  
  


Of all people, he was stuck inside the body of an Uchiha.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me what you thought about this chapter in the comments :D
> 
>  
> 
> Edit: Thank you Vlood for making this wonderful [illustration](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19705063) of Kurama ^^  
> 


	2. Back again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kurama realizes some more things about his current situation...

 

 

To say that he was furious was an understatement. 

Of all the shinobis he  had  met in his very, very long life, the ones he hated the most had always been Uchihas. 

To avoid leveling the entire cemetery in his rage, he focused his attention on the headstone again.

_Kinyasu Uchiha_ , it read.

The first name was still a complete mystery to him, even with Kushina’s memories of the clan members she had met during her life in Konoha, when the clan was still alive. He had to admit, though, that in its prime, the clan was one of the most powerful – if not  _THE_ most powerful – of the village, and therefore composed of maybe thousands of people. So it was impossible Kushina would have met them all.

He looked down at himself, scrunching his nose at all the mud present on his skin. He was dirty, but the body itself seemed young and healthy. The complete opposite of what anyone would expect a corpse dating from the Uchiha massacre – or possibly even before that – to look like. Maybe his immense chakra reserves had been used for healing and bringing the body back to life for him to use, since the owner’s soul had already left.

He shook himself out of his thoughts.

He  _had_ to find Naruto

Surely he had the answers to everything happening. 

_If he was still alive_ , added the darkest part o f his mind in a whisper, but he forced himself to ignore it.

He left the cemetery shortly after filling up the hole of the – now empty – grave with the fresh soil scattered around it. Fortunately for him the hole was located just behind the headstone, and in the far part of the cemetery, so while looking highly suspicious  when you stood in front of it , the chance of someone discovering the dug up site was relatively low.

It was still dark outside, but he didn’t want to take any risks of being seen by  any  Anbu or sentinel, so he headed for the forest at a brisk pace. After fighting his way through the bushes and the low branches, he finally tumbled inside a clearing traversed by a lazy stream, and decided to clean himself of the mud. This was a chore, but a necessary one. He wasn’t covered in fur anymore, and couldn’t clean himself the way he used to do.

The water was ice-cold, but it helped clearing his mind and quenching his thirst. That was another thing to add to the growing lists of annoying details about owning a human body: from now on he would need to hydrate and feed himself regularly if he didn’t want to faint and die from exhaustion.  What was he, a  _potted plant??_

And he needed to sleep. What a waste of time.

  
  


Cold but clean, he quickly made his way to the other side of the forest to observe the nearby buildings, crouching on a wide tree branch.

The village seemed asleep, and apart from that of the people sleeping in their homes, he didn’t feel the chakra of anybody near him. He had to turn that into his advantage when it was still dark around.

With a powerful push to his legs, he propelled himself on to a flat roof where laundry was drying. It probably belonged to a  rather large family, given the various sizes and colors of the clothes hanging on the wire racks.

After browsing between the lines for something his size he finally set his sights on some baggy  grey pants that fell mid-shin, and a brown long-sleeve shirt. There were no shoes in the vicinity, but he preferred to go barefoot anyway.

As he finished getting dressed, the sky had already turned  a few shades shades clearer, and he could hear the noise of the first merchants getting to work on the streets below him. As he emerged from the rows of drying sheets, he was met with the sight of the entirety of Konoha in front of him, gently bathed in the first rays of sunshine.

He took in the view with a slight smile on his face, until his eyes fell upon the Hokage Rock.

His breath hitched in his throat. If they  had  entirely rebuilt Konoha from ashes, it would have been understandable if they didn’t reconstruct the faces of the previous Hokages, and start anew, with the faces of the new ones.

But that didn’t seem to be the case here, because only three faces were carved into the mountain, and he recognized them all.

 

Hashirama Senju, the Shodai Hokage. 

Tobirama Senju, the Nidaime.

And finally, Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime.

 

He sat heavily on the ground, crushed by the knowledge of what this implicated…

Somehow, he had been sent decades into the past.

He rapidly ran the maths in his head: Hiruzen had had the longest term in all of the other existing Hokages, but that was counting the years after Minato’s death, when he had to put on the hat again. However, Minato’s face was not present yet.

Hiruzen must have been around twenty years-old at most when he got the hat, and he passed it down to Minato some time before his sixties.

There was almost a forty years’ time period possibility here.

That was vaguely annoying, but at least something good came out of it:

Naruto FOR SURE wasn’t dead in this timeline. All the doubts nagging his subconscious were now gone. Erased. That was the best news since he woke up in that coffin hours ago.

_Because he isn’t even born yet you idiot_ , added his subconscious.  That… he really didn’t want to think about that… not yet. Keep going, don’t stop, don’t  _think_ . Act.

He shifted slightly his position on the ground to get more comfortable, and glanced at the rock again, making sure what he saw was indeed real. The faces were still there, unchanged, so he continued the train of his thoughts,  this time avoiding dangerous terrain.

It meant Minato and Kushina were still alive, since they died the day of Naruto’s birth, when Minato was already the Yondaime, and Kushina was technically still his Jinchūriki. Which meant that there were currently two Kyūbi in Konoha, both trapped in side human bodies…

He could almost hear Naruto laughing his ass off at the irony. 

He slowly got up from the ground, trying to shake the dust off his fur before realizing he didn’t have fur anymore, so he settled on brushing the dirt from his pants. Before attempting anything, it was essential for him to find out exactly at which point in time he landed in the past. Then – he smiled wolfishly – he could focus on making a few heads roll. There was no point in going back in time without getting rid of all the people that wronged him and Naruto.

He thought back about the main events that shook Konoha, and by extent, Naruto’s life, trying to figure out where to start.

The first person whose actions first had a negative impact on Naruto was Obito, with him organizing the Kyūbi attack that resulted in the death of both his parents. If he could avoid that from happening, Naruto’s life would be irreversibly changed, for the best he wishfully hoped… but he wouldn’t become the Naruto he knew… 

No. It didn’t matter. No matter the events or the timeline, he still would be Naruto, and he owned it to the brat to do anything in his power to make him happy.

So objective number one: locate Obito.

If he was still in Konoha that meant he wasn’t presumed dead yet, made Black Zetsu’s pawn via Madara, and hadn’t become batshit crazy about trapping the world in an endless dream.

So first he had to locate where the kid was living. At some point into the war, way after Obito’s death – the real one this time – Kakashi had opened up about his past to Naruto, and  had  shared his memories of team Minato with him. So  Kurama knew Obito was not actually living inside the Uchiha compound, but in an apartment on the edge of it. That narrowed down the area in which he should look for him, but it still left a lot of ground to cover.

He gathered his chakra and frowned in concentration, making the hand seals of Dog, Boar, then Ram. It was the first time he was actually  doing  the hand signs himself, but he figured that with the knowledge of three generations of Uzumaki to back him up, that shouldn’t be too hard.

Still, he felt a sense of pride and accomplishment when he successfully produced the henge of a blond teenage girl with long hair and bright blue eyes, clothes shrinking to adapt  to  his new form, and sandals appearing on her feet.

He shifted around a bit, trying to get a feel of this new body, but the henge was an illusion, so it didn’t feel any better or worse than before.

As a kid, Obito had been known to be extremely friendly to the older people in his neighborhood, helping them with their groceries and so on, so Kurama decided he could ask them for directions of his whereabouts. And now that he looked like a harmless civilian girl, he would be able to show himself in public without raising suspicions, as long as he kept his chakra levels in check.

Making sure one last time that nobody was watching him, he jumped over the edge of the roof, and discreetly let himself fall to the street below.

 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I realized I posted the second chapter exactly one week after the first! Not so bad right?  
> I'll try to post the others following the same schedule
> 
> So what did you think about this chapter? :D  
> The character Kinyasu doesn't exist in Naruto, I created him entirely.  
> I also chose his name for the meaning of it, so if you're interested about what kind of person he was when he was alive, go check [this](http://www.first-names-meanings.com/names/name-KINYASU.html) out ^^


	3. Obito Uchiha

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kurama goes to investigate Obito's place

 

 

 

Kurama had spent the whole day walking around the civilian area around the Uchiha compounds, asking every sweet old lady he came across for a young boy named Obito, but he didn’t have any luck yet.

To his surprise, he actually found himself enjoying being back in Konoha, even as it had been his prison for many decades. It was different now, watching the people go on about their normal life, the kids playing in the streets, hearing the loud voices of the shop owners selling their products to the passerby and feeling all this life and energy around him… all of that gave him a strange sense of peace and satisfaction.

The last few years that he remembered had been wearing Naruto down, physically and emotionally, and it ended up bleeding through the seal, affecting Kurama too.

Kurama had never been supposed to care for humans. They were weak creatures that lived short and fruitless lives, spending it fighting and betraying each other. They made him their slave, locking him and the other Bijūs up with seals under the pretext they were too dangerous being left free to roam the world, but using it as political power to rule over other weaker countries.

Yet, he had grown fond of Naruto, and in a lesser degree to some of the boy’s more level-headed friends, and tolerated the rest.

 

He watched in amusement as two little kids, maybe around five, came racing down the street, screaming with joy as they reached their apparent goal: an ice-cream shop. The parents weren’t far behind, grocery bags in hands and smiling softly at their children’s antics.

Kurama averted his gaze from them.

His very last memory, from Naruto’s eyes, had been of a faraway Sakura, fighting hordes of White Zetsus to protect the last children of their group. But the memory always stopped abruptly, and he couldn’t tell how the fight ended. Sakura was a strong fighter, but she couldn’t let out the extent of her destructive abilities while protecting people, afraid of getting them involved.

Regardless of the outcome, he wasn’t going to let it come to this again.

Cold determination flowed through his mind and body. He was going to find Black Zetsu and destroy him before he could resurrect Kaguya. There was no stopping him until he was done.

 

-

 

It was not until a few hours into the afternoon that an old lady sitting on a bench with a cat in her lap was able to give him Obito’s address. He’d met quite a few people already that knew the Uchiha so he had had the confirmation that Obito was indeed already born, and old enough to walk alone around town, but none of them until now had known where he was living.

He thanked her and set off to Obito’s place.

 

His apartment was located on the last floor of a large round shaped building, looking a bit age worn but still sturdy. The once yellow color had almost totally disappeared, dulled down by the constant exposition to the sun and other elements, and many cracks were visible in the facade. Still, it actually seemed to enhance the homelike vibe of the building, rather than diminishing it.

At the top of the circular staircase leading to the last floor, Kurama paused.

The right side of the hallway leading to Obito’s door opened over its full length to the exterior of the building, like a balcony, with the roof extension sheltering the hall from the rain and direct sunlight.

The sight reminded him of the one Naruto had from his bedroom’s window, which had a clear and unobstructed view of most of Konoha’s buildings.

In front of the door he scoffed at the basic seal protection hidden inside the wood. Mito and Kushina, like any respectful Uzumaki, had been remarkable – if not the best – seal masters of their own times, and he had picked up enough from their shared memories to be pretty decent at it himself.

Extending his chakra inside the apartment through the door and the walls, and satisfied when he realized no one was home, he broke the seal and stepped inside, closing the door behind him.

A dark entrance led him to the main room, where a futon was laid down on the floor on his left. On his right was a large desk affixed below the only window of the room, next to an overflowing book shelf. A small storage cabinet rested on the wall opposite to the door he had come from.

The soft afternoon sunlight passing through the small gaps in the closed windows’ blinds was enough for him to see, yet shield him from any outsider’s eyes.

His shoulders sagged in relief as he let out a breath and dropped the henge of the young blond girl as he took in more of the room’s content.

A few clothes were scattered on the ground, and the bed was unmade. On the desk stood a pile of books, a team picture, and a cork board full of resting on the window and blocking half of its view. Most of the pictures pinned to the board were of a young girl with short brown hair and purple markings on either side of her cheeks, the same one that appeared in the framed picture.

 _Now would you look at that_ , he thought to himself, grinning at the sight of a grumpy and very, very small Kakashi on the group picture. On the other side of the girl was a young Obito, who seemed just as happy to be there as Kakashi.

Reminding himself of what he knew would become of Obito, seeing that picture was a bit … disconcerting. He knew that he had been sent back into the past, but only now was he realizing that, right now, Obito wasn’t a mad man broken by loss. He was just a kid, with a poorly hidden crush on the girl in his team, if the many pictures were any indications.

 

Tearing his gaze away from the desk, he raised his head and this time took a long breath in, confirming what he had been thinking since entering the room. It effectively smelled lived in, and quite recent.

Obito was still living in Konoha then.

Those were good news, if Obito were with Madara already, Kurama’s window of action to stop the Kyūbi attack would have been way too small for comfort.

But even now, he couldn’t relax.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, he thought of all the ways he prevent Obito from getting involved with Madara. In itself it was easy: he was pretty confident in his skills, even stuck in a human body, but the problem lied in staying undetected in the middle of a shinobi village.

He couldn’t exactly go to the Hokage and ask to come along every mission Obito would have from now on, with the only explication that at some point in one of them he would be crushed under a lot of rocks, presumed dead but actually abducted by a powerful Uchiha everyone thought dead and buried since decades, and that that same Uchiha would organize the death of one of Obito’s friend to awaken his Mangekyō, inexorably drawing him to the path of vengeance, that would result many years later in the destruction of the world as they know it by a resurrected moon goddess…

Yeah that summed it up.

And that was even without mentioning he was the nine-tailed Bijū, time-traveling into the past and reincarnated into a human corpse, which happened to be an Uchiha’s body.

There was no way anyone sane would believe his story and agree to help, let alone leave him free to roam around Konoha. He was alone on this one.

 

He didn’t want to stick around in case Obito came back home, but there was something he had to confirm now that he had the chance.

He fidgeted in place for a few seconds, then marched in directions of the only door left in the room, hoping it led to the bathroom. It opened on a small kitchen, but a second doorway located on the side showed the interior of a bathroom.

He steeled himself against the inevitable and stepped inside, freezing when red glowing eyes reflected themselves in the round mirror suspended above the sink.

Except… he squinted at his reflection and came closer to the mirror.

Dread replaced itself with stupor. His eyes were red, but it wasn’t because of the Sharingan. No, those were _his_ eyes, the ones he had when he was still a tailed-beast: bright red irises with black slits for pupils.

But that wasn’t the end of it, because in his stupor, his mouth had opened up, revealing sharp teeth and longer canines, way too long for a normal human. His raven black hair, however, was very Uchiha-like, falling in long and spikey strands all over his back and shoulders.

His reflection was pale and skinny, but he could still see the outlines of broad shoulders under his shirt. He wasn’t very skilled at determining human’s age, but he guessed his body would have been around his mid-twenties.

He was a bit offended to look like an odd mix between an Inuzaka and an Uchiha, but glad that nobody was going to recognize the late Uchiha’s body, since there was no way he might have looked like that in the first place. The less he got involved with that damn bloodline, the better.

Satisfied with what he learned from his little home intrusion, he put his henge back on and exited the flat.

 

He was re-activating the seal on the front door, wondering what he should do next, when he felt the presence of someone approaching from the stairs.

The chakra levels were too high for a civilian, but too low to be more than a Genin. He gave priority to finishing the seal instead of getting away, and it activated at the same moment a small figure carrying a box stepped into the hallway.

He recognized the girl from the pictures as she came closer, so he decided to address her first before she could suspect him of anything.

“Hi!”, he exclaimed, with false cheer. The girl blinked at him like she didn’t even realize someone was standing on Obito’s front porch until they had addressed her.

“I wanted to talk to Obito about something, but I never got his address up until now. I knocked but nobody answered, do you know where he is?”.

She visibly blanched and looked down at the floor, her hands tightening on the edges of the box.

“I’m really sorry, I – “, she stopped for a second, as if gathering her resolve.

“I don’t think they had time to make it official in the civilian lists already but … ”, she pursed her lips before continuing. “… Obito passed away some time ago, during a mission”.

She looked at Kurama, unshed tears in her eyes, and he prayed his utter disbelief could pass for the shock of someone hearing the death of an acquaintance.

“Ah…”. He cursed himself for his reaction, and continued quickly.

“I’m really sorry, I had no idea”, he said apologetically before pausing. God damnit, the kid was with Madara already after all. “How long ago did it happen?”.

“It’s been a bit over a month now”, she answered quietly.

“I came to gather some of Obito’s belongings. The Uchiha clan apparently didn’t have time yet to take care of his apartment, but when they do I’m afraid they will just throw everything away”. Bitterness laced her words. Then realization lit her face.

“Ah! Don’t worry I’m not going to break into his room, the landlord gave me the key”. She looked panicked, twisting her hands in her short apron-skirt.

Kurama eyed her with bewilderment. She was afraid _HE_ would be the one to think she was committing a crime? If that wasn’t ironic he didn’t know what was.

He apologized again and declared he’d leave her to it, then walked himself to the stairs and outside of the building.

He really wanted to scream at the top of his lungs and wreck things, but instead managed to keep a calm exterior and headed for the Hokage Rock, where he knew he would be alone and free to bitch at his heart content.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everybody thank you so much for all the nice comments about the previous chapters!  
> I swear I read all of them :D  
> This chapter is quite dense so the next one will be kinda short... sorry! ^^"


	4. Planning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kurama plans his next moves/kills

 

 

 

Kurama was sitting on top of the Sandaime’s stone head, knees drawn up on his chest, the blond hair of his henge gently ruffled by the crisp evening wind. His stomach had been growling for a while now, but there wasn’t any way for him to get food anytime soon, so he just decided to ignore it.

 

Earlier in the day he had tried to contact his siblings through they shared mind space, but no matter how long he waited and how far he probed, nobody answered. This wasn’t much of a surprise since their relationship had degraded way before they were sealed away in their respective Bijūs. And while it would have been nice to have some backup, he didn’t have time to roam through the shinobi countries to meet them individually.

 

He could feel the beginning of a headache, either from all the thinking he did or the dehydration, he didn’t know. Probably a mix of both.

Despite the throbbing in his head he forced himself to do a quick recap. He had to get his facts straight.

Obito was already presumed dead and Madara had already made contact with him, but he was probably still sane. _Or at least as sane as an Uchiha could be_. He knew from Kakashi that Obito would become mad after his female teammate’s death. Since Kurama was pretty sure the female teammate in question was the one he saw today, that was one thing covered. But he had no idea when her death would happen, the precise timeline of Kakashi’s story wasn’t entirely clear to him.

Kaguya’s revival had been made possible entirely thanks to the existence of the Gedō Mazō and Black Zetsu. Other factors came into play, but if these two were destroyed, Kurama hoped that would be the definite end of her.

He felt as if time was running away from him, as if he was trying to grasp it with his bare hands but it flowed faster between his fingers every time he made a move in the right direction. It had been a long time since his frustration had been directed at himself.

Now that he wasn’t sealed anymore he was free of his own actions again, but that also meant he would be the only one responsible of his failures.

 

A chill ran up his spine.

As the only one who knew about the future he alone had to bear the responsibility of preventing it. But what if he made it worse? What if his actions precipitated the timeline? The weight of his mission seemed to get heavier by the second.

Kurama rubbed at his temples, trying to make the growing headache go away.

He wasn’t Naruto, who could entice people to follow him with his bright smile and naïve ideals that everyone could be saved, whether from their fates or themselves. Naruto should have been the one sent to the past. Naruto had changed him for the best and he was no longer a beast fueled by his hatred for humans. But even if the boy had changed his views on the world, he could never change his deepest nature:

Kurama was the one who was good at killing and wreaking havoc.

No matter how merciful he had become in the last few years during the 4 th  shinobi war, given the chance he would show no mercy to Kaguya and her puppets. The order of extermination would be more or less the following, depending on how his plans worked: Black Zetsu first, – he was the core of Kaguya’s revival after all – then the Gedō Mazō, and finally Madara.

Madara would be relatively easy to deal with, given that he was didn’t have the Rinnegans, and that the Gedō Mazō was probably the only thing keeping him alive. Once the statue was destroyed, Madara would cease to be a threat and Kurama would be able to focus on Black Zetsu entirely.

Murdering a young Obito in cold blood was still debatable though. He remembered Naruto’s bitterness at not being able to save the man, and felt a kind of obligation to give it a try... plus he could use him as a token of good will in Konoha. They would never trust an unknown shinobi to roam freely in the village, but coming back with Obito would probably give him some liberties.

 

Shuddering lightly at the drop in temperature now that the sun had disappeared behind the horizon, he decided that he’d give Obito a chance to prove himself, but would kill him in a heartbeat should he prove himself unworthy of that chance.

He felt frustrated at the current situation he found himself in: he knew that going straight to Madara’s lair alone, and in a body he didn’t really know how to use was borderline stupid, almost suicidal, but he didn’t really have a choice. But the quantity of chakra he felt whirling slowly in his body felt similar to the one Naruto possessed, so he deduced he had a body with strength similar to that of a Jinchūriki. Maybe things were not as bad as they seemed. He himself probably didn’t have the affinity to produce a Rasengan, but his chakra nature was the same as when he was a Bijū, so the chances were high he would be able to produce a Bijudama… probably.

His growling stomach cut through the silence, reminding him of the most urgent matter at hand.

He had already decided earlier that the best course of action was to crash at Obito’s place for the night. He couldn’t afford sleeping outside in the cold now that he had a more sensitive body, and he was pretty sure that if the Uchiha clan still hadn’t made time to dispose of the boy’s belonging after so long, the chances were very high they wouldn’t bother with it until at least the end of the war. The way they treated Obito as an outcast didn’t sit well with him, it reminded him too well of the way the village used to treat Naruto when he was young.

Glancing at the empty streets, Kurama decided he had waited long enough and made for Obito’s apartment.

 

-

 

After an hour spent carefully positioning all different kinds of alert seals around Obito’s place, and deactivating once again the protection on the door, he finally stepped inside for the second time.

The main room was slightly barer – surely the doing of his teammate – but at least the bed was still there. He checked one last time he was safe and headed for the kitchen once he was assured nobody had followed him.

 

He had kept his expectations low, so finding dried snacks and cereal bars in a cupboard was actually a nice surprise. The risks of being caught stealing food were not worth it, but if he hadn’t found any in the apartment he would have had no choice. Madara’s hideout was at least one whole day away from Konoha – two if he went slow – and that definitely would have drained his last reserves. And that was without even counting in the fight to come.

The tap water was also somehow still working so he quenched his thirst and ate until his stomach stopped growling, too tired to even register the surreal feeling of _eating food_. He would ponder on it after some hours of sleep.

Having made a mental note of all possible escape routes in the apartment, he flopped down heavily on the futon, face down on the pillow.

His sensitive nose immediately scrunched up in disgust. It smelled like Uchiha. Like a prepubescent Uchiha.

 _Urgh… He would never be able to fall asleep_ , he thought as he rolled on his back and slid under the warm covers.

 

Only a few heartbeats later and he was out.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was a bit shorter, but the next one will be HUUUUGE I swear ;p  
> I'm really excited to show it to you guys next week :D
> 
> A big thank you to my wonderful beta who always knows how to motivate me to continue to write with her insightful comments on my fic!
> 
> Edit: Sorry chapter 5 is taking so long! Me and my beta were in hollidays, but it should come out pretty soon ;)


	5. The fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to confront Black Zetsu

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is everybody! I'm back from holidays and posting again!  
> This chapter took me a lot of time and effort but it was really satisfying to finish it! Hope you enjoy it as well :D  
> Thanks again to my wonderful beta!
> 
> Warning: slight gore ahead

 

 

 

Kurama woke up slowly, cursing at the soft pillow for making him fall asleep that fast and that deep. While he had never needed to sleep as a Bijū, he still knew what’s to know about the basics of it – a side effect of being trapped in human receptacles for so long.

But now that he did need to sleep, he realised there was a lot he had never known.

He’d never expected it to be such a… _void._

 

That was concerning. How was he supposed to defend himself in such a state? After years of practice, Shinobis could enhance their ability to rest while still being on guard, but he’d never had the need to develop such skill. All he could hope for was for his body to remember the training the Uchiha had to go through, and that it would act on reflex if anything tried to attack him in his sleep.

Judging by the dim light filtering through the blinds, he guessed it still was quite early in the morning. Since he probably wouldn’t be able to fall asleep again, he decided on raiding the kitchen of the last snack bars.

 

After feeding his growling stomach, he entered the Bijū shared mind space once more, but there were still no answers from his siblings.

Judging that there was nothing left for him to do in Konoha at the moment, he gathered the rest of the food, a small blanket and a water bottle in a cloth bag, threw it on his shoulder and quietly exited the apartment, then the village altogether.

With one last look behind him at the walls surrounding Konoha, he started to head north at a brisk pace.

 

-

 

A day and a half later, the giant bone cemetery finally came into view. The thick vegetation as well as the whitened remains that stretched themselves up to the sky like crooked fingers gave an eerie feeling to the place. This part of the woods was abnormally quiet, devoid of all animal noises normally present. It was as if they, too, could sense the heavy wicked air around that side of the mountain.

He didn’t want to linger here, but still paused long enough to allow his legs some rest and eat the last of his provisions.

To avoid detection from Zetsu he had put up a chakra concealment seal as soon as he had entered the unnamed country. The seal did need energy to maintain itself, and even if he needed all the chakra he could get to triumph in the fight to come he couldn’t let it up just yet.

He was prideful, with an ego just as big as his real form. But he wasn’t _stupid_. He knew his chances were slim. Indeed _chance_ would play an important role in this fight. Far more important than he would have liked

That’s why he was so careful as to keep the element of surprise on his side by maintaining his presence hidden for as long as possible.

Fishing the necessary hand signs out of naruto’s memory did not take very long since it had been his favoured technique ever since he was thirteen. Kurama used them to produce a handful of shadow clones, and together they began searching for an entrance to the mine below them.

The intel they had managed to extract from Kabuto after his defeat proved itself useful, and they rapidly managed to locate the entrance, an inconspicuous hole in the ground hidden below one of the enormous hollow skulls that lay scattered in the graveyard.

Kurama didn’t wait any longer, he gave short orders to the two clones he decided would stay behind on the surface, and made his way into the passage with the rest of them.

The tunnel they entered was dark, the sunlight from the hole behind them doing little to illuminate their paths. The smallness of the space forced them into a slow and hunched walk along the exposed earth of the tunnel, as if it was the doing of a giant animal rather than humans.

Given the abnormality of the place, that was a rather tangible possibility.

Kurama stopped himself at what appeared to be the end of the tunnel. The wall in front of him was indeed closed off, but the way seemed to continue … down.

He peeked at the gaping hole at his feet, but the absolute darkness made it impossible to see where it was leading.

 _Great_. Literal shot in the dark there.

He couldn’t scan it with chakra either, they would instantly know they had an intruder. _If_ he hadn’t been located already.

He couldn’t wait here any longer, so he walked up the hole, and dropped into the abyss.

.

.

.

He was still falling when the dark dissipated and he emerged from the high dome-shaped ceiling of a large room, dug up in the rock like a cavern. He landed smoothly in the middle of it, quickly followed by his clones, and turned to face the other three occupants present.

At the end of the room, standing in front of the Gedō Mazō, Gunbai in hand, stood Madara Uchiha, guarded on each side by a White Zetsu.

Kurama clentched and unclenched his hands, his teeth gritting together under the force of his jaw. He was itching to kill the bastard right here and right now, but he had to act carefully. He couldn’t allow himself to be blinded by rage and let Black Zetsu escape, not now that he was so close. So with all the willpower he could muster, he forced himself to relax the tension in his body and began examining all the details that presented themselves to him as fast as his human brain permitted it.

None of the White Zetsus were merged with the Black one… that could only mean two things: he had merged with another White, which wasn’t here, or he was still attached to Madara. Zetsu was a master at detection and could travel long distances in an instant through the ground. The simple fact that he wasn’t here right now suggested that the second hypothesis must have been the correct one.

Now regarding Madara himself…

He only seemed like the shadow of his reincarnated young self that fought against them during the war. His once raven hair had turned white, his face was hollow and wrinkled, and his long robe couldn’t hide his now frail constitution… as well as… tubes? Madara appeared to be connected to a dozen pipes, which were leading to the Gedō Mazō behind him. The statue must have been the reason he had managed to stay alive for all those years, even if it couldn’t maintain his strength.

He couldn’t risk looking directly into Madara’s eyes, but he didn’t feel any surge of chakra or a strong push forcing him to look at his eyes that could suggest he activated his sharingans.

Was Madara too weak to use them? If that was the case –

“Who are you? And how did you find the entrance to this place?”, interrupted Madara out of his thoughts.

That was it. Last calm before the storm. He breathed in and smiled as wide and wickedly as his human mouth permitted, and lashed out.

“Hey Madara! I’m payback for what you did!”

His opponent straightened his posture and shifted into a fighting stance.

Kurama readied himself.

“And payback’s a bitch”, he added as he and his clones broke into a run to meet their enemies.

The two Zetsus, who had stayed strangely unresponsive up until now, threw themselves at him following a short order from Madara. He avoided them easily and left his clones to deal with them, because from what he had seen, for some reason, they seemed slower and weaker than the Zetsus they fought during the war.

 

When he got close enough to Madara, the man raised his Gunbai, and with a speed impressive for his age, spun it around aiming for Kurama’s head, who couldn’t do anything but deflect it with his claws.

Madara was indeed weakened but the blow still resonated in his arms. He gritted his teeth, ignoring the pain pulsing from his hands and moved to get in close range to render the long weapon useless.

He jumped in the direction of Madara, claws extended and bracing for impact when the Uchiha buried his left hand under his robes, and came back with a kunai, aimed at Kurama’s heart.

He could have avoided the blow but decided against it: it was the perfect opportunity to get closer. Faking a miscalculation, he let the kunai and Madara’s hand pierce through his chest, still adjusting his position enough not to perforate his heart. He was pretty sure his body would possess the same healing capacities his _Jinchūrikis had obtained thanks to his chakra, but he hadn’t had time to test exactly how effective it was. So, not the heart._

 _The pain was excruciating, making his hands weak and his vision swim, but the adrenaline pumping in his organism helped balance it out and ke_ _pt_ _him going. Now Madara was close enough for what he had planned._

_Forcing his limbs to move, he firmly grabbed Madara by the arms, driving his claws into the flesh to assure his grip. Behind him, the noises of the fight as well as the fact that none of the clone had disappeared yet informed him that the Zetsus had been disposed of._

Still avoiding looking at his opponent in the eyes, he concentrated on shaping the chakra around as two gigantic arms, much like Naruto did when using the Bij _ū_ chakra mode.

“Now!”, he yelled at his clones, who began simultaneously creating Bij _ū_ damas in their right palms as he pinned a struggling Madara with the chakra hands. As two clones smashed either sides of the man with small Bijudamas – Kurama didn’t want to get destroyed by his own creation after all – the three remaining clones fired their much larger ones directly at the Gedō Mazō behind them.

 

The force of the explosion that followed was so strong the ground shook furiously, throwing Kurama to his knees. Some parts of the rock above them detached themselves from the ceiling and came raining down around them.

As Madara half-collapsed on Kurama, breathing harshly and blood gushing from his mouth, a dark form emerged from the back of the old man, and began to screech.

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!”, it shouted, looking at the hole where the statue used to be.

 _So you’re finally showing yourself now uh?_ thought Kurama. He already knew Black Zetsu had been pretending to be on Madara’s side just to use him, but it was still sickening to watch. Even he, Kurama, knew how to respect allies.

 

As Kurama got up from the ground, hoisting Madara as well because of the hand still piercing his chest, he heard a commotion somewhere behind him at the end of the room.

There, from and adjacent tunnel and flanked by two Zetsus trying to slow him down, emerged Obito.

This time, to Kurama’s utter confusion, Black Zetsu stopped screaming and actually turned his attention to the newcomers. It was already a miracle the fucker hadn’t put his complete focus on him yet, so he decided on taking advantage of his distraction for as long as he could, reaching for Madara’s head that had fallen on his shoulder. The Uchiha was still breathing but unconscious, his oh so dangerous eyes now shut tight.

 

_Perfect._

 

Caging Madara’s face between his hands, Kurama hovered the claws at the end of his thumbs in front of the face of his enemy, and drove them as deep as he could into the eye sockets, piercing the dangerous organs like ripe fruits.

At the same time, and just to be sure to finish the bastard, he closed his sharp teeth around Madara’s throat, squeezed hard and ripped it off in a rain of blood.

 _That_ seemed to draw Black Zetsu’s attention, since he was pretty much useless if stuck to a dead body. Madara was drawing his last labored breaths, useless puppet now.

Kurama steeled himself as Madara’s heartbeat slowed down. Even if he didn’t have an easy face to read, it was obvious Black Zetsu was seething with anger, and he would probably try to possess him any second now.

Instead he snarled, “So you took down my favorite Uchiha. Well then ...”

He turned his head to the other end of the cavern and shouted, pure malice and hatred dripping from his voice.

“… I’ll have the other one instead!!”, and launched himself in the direction of the younger Uchiha, detaching himself from Madara’s corpse.

Time seemed to freeze at the same time as Kurama’s body. He hadn’t expected that. It wasn’t in his plans. Black Zetsu was supposed to try to possess him, god damn it Obito! Why did he have to arrive at the worst time possible?!

As the last part of that parasite extracted himself from Madara’s body, Kurama pushed it away from him thanks to the chakra arms, successfully extricating the kunai and hand from his chest with a sickeningly wet sound. Blood was flowing from the wound but at this point the pain was just a sting, forgotten at the back of his mind for a later time.

 

As soon as he was freed he rushed after Black Zetsu, dispelling his clones and the intangible arms to focus all his chakra in his feet and catch up to the other. Far in front of them, the Zetsus that had been standing frozen until now finally seemed to shake themselves and adopted a protective stance in front of Obito.

Everything was going so fast, yet so, so slow.

Just before reaching the group, Black Zetsu yelled an order, and the Zetsus stiffly threw themselves out of the way, extending his hand towards the boy. Kurama was catching up but it way too slow, and Obito seemed too shocked to move.

Kurama threw a last powerful kick to the ground and finally passed Black Zetsu, reaching the boy first at full speed.

His lead was minimal and he had no time to slow down, so he tried to minimize the damages and forcefully pushed Obito away from him – maybe with a little bit too much force, he thought with remorse when the boy crashed away – as Black Zetsu slammed into his left side.

He immediately seized the being with his chakra arms, preventing him from reaching Obito, but the latter burst in laughter.

“You think your futile efforts can stop me? Your body is already mine!” he spat at Kurama, and began absorbing his chakra. Once the arms disappeared by lack of energy to fuel them, Black Zetsu began to fuse with his left arm.

Kurama’s chakra reserves were draining at an alarming rate, good thing they were larger than a normal human so he had time to act.

Minus his left arm, he still had full control of his movements. Black Zetsu probably thought he didn’t have to take control of his whole body, and that draining him of his chakra would be enough to kill him.

 

Big mistake.

 

He dissipated the two shadow clones left at the surface who had been accumulating Kage chakra up until now, their energy transferring to him and ultimately the black leech attached to him.

When Black Zetsu realized the change in chakra he was absorbing, he immediately stopped taking it in and hastily tried to separate himself, but it was too late. Kurama had control of his own body, preventing the parasite from running away.

The Sage chakra he was pushing into his left arm was slowly poisoning and turning Black Zetsu into grey dust starting from the part closer to his chest, who realized he was not getting out until Kurama was dead, unconscious, or exhausted of all his chakra, and so began struggling and trashing around in the limb. To ensure he could see his prisoner perfectly at any time, he ripped off entirely the left sleeve from his shirt.

Since Black Zetsu was trapped for now, Kurama allowed himself to divert his attention and look at his surroundings. Obito was laying still on the ground, probably knocked out from the fall, and the two Zetsus were still standing not so far away, frozen from the previous order.

A sharp pain brought his attention back to his arm, which was … bleeding.

Was Black Zetsu trying to sever his arm so his could get free? Kurama wondered, clutching his shoulder before the line where the skin turned black. He was about to concentrate more Sage chakra down the limb when two round yellow eyes and a mouth with pointy teeth opened up in the blackness.

“Kill him! Kill him now!!”, ordered the mouth.

On the edge of his field of vision Kurama saw movement, and only managed to avoid the first Zetsu coming at him at full force thanks to the reflexes ingrained in his Uchiha’s body.

Dodging the other Zetsu – who had a strange swirley pattern in his body, leading to a hole in his right eye – he looked down at his arm. There was still black on it on at least two third of it.

 _This situation_ _is_ _far from ideal_ , Kurama thought darkly.

He couldn’t spare any chakra to go against the Zetsus, or else he was running the risk of exhausting his -already low – reserves before killing Black Zetsu, he only had one arm to fight … and his chest injury still hurt like a bitch, even with his fast regeneration.

Fortunately for him his attackers weren’t coordinating their attacks, like mindless machines following orders…

 _It’s already hard enough as it is_ , he thought as the swirly Zetsu punched him hard in the jaw, projecting him against the ground on his back. He managed to get up and get some distance before suffering any more damage, but he couldn’t avoid the other Zetsu attacked him from the side and grazed his arm.

He felt like his legs were made of stone and his lungs of liquid fire.

His chest wound was still bleeding, as well as his nose, and he had at least two broken ribs.

But the blackness hadn’t disappeared totally yet, his wrist was still entirely black.

Black Zetsu had been screaming since the beginning of the fight, and now there was no telling anymore if it was directed at Kurama or the two others. It seemed like the creature had lost it’s mind, the Sage chakra having destroyed most of its being already.

 

With a curse, Kurama lost his footing trying to avoid the first Zetsu – the one who had a scar-liked pattern on the right side of his face – and too tired to be able to correct his trajectory, fell on one knee, where he was tackled to the ground.

He tried to wrestle his way out of Zetsu’s grip, but the bastard pushed him face first on the ground, straddling his legs and keeping a strong grip on his head to prevent him from fighting or getting away.

Kurama still struggled with all the strength he had left but only managed to turn his head to the side. He couldn’t even look at his own left arm, and therefore, know how long he had left. Even if they were fainter, he could still hear ongoing screams, which meant – to his horror – that Black Zetsu was indeed still alive.

If only he had more time! Just a little bit more!

Above him, Zetsu transformed the armless side of his body into a long spike, similar to a torn off tree branch, but Kurama wasn’t paying attention to him.

 

He had failed.

 

From the beginning he had been ready to give his life to protect Naruto, and naively thought it would have been enough.

But he realized now… his life... hadn’t been enough. Yes, he managed to destroy the Gedō Mazō, but that only delayed the inevitable.

 

A wave of guilt and pain crashed over him.

His eyes started to sting and fill themselves with tears. Maybe dying in a human body without any sure hope of reincarnation was what he deserved. If only he had managed to make things right for Naruto before that.

Above him, Zetsu was blankly staring at him with his only yellow eye. He slowly raised his right arm, aiming at Kurama’s head.

“ _Naruto … I am so sorry”,_ he thought bitterly.

As Zetsu swung his arm, Kurama closed his eyes out of reflex, and then…

 

An impact that shook his body.

 

And… nothing. No sudden pain. It was silent as well.

Was he dead...?

His body was still aching all over, if this was the after-life it was really disappointing.

He slowly opened his eyes and was met with a white spike, planted firmly on the ground a mere inch in front of his eyes.

Did Zetsu somehow miss his shot? He turned his head and realized it wasn’t held down anymore, so he shifted his whole upper body to have a proper view at what was going on behind his back.

However, he couldn’t turn completely, because apart from the pain of his broken ribs, Zetsu was still sitting on his back, a lost expression on his face. Their eyes met and Zetsu seemed to shake himself out of it, getting up to stand at a distance, but when he looked over where Obito lay, his eye widened and he ran to the boy with urgency.

 

Finally able to sit up, Kurama observed both Zetsus fuss over a slowly waking and groggy Obito. So the boy was alive and the other two didn’t seem in a mood to kill him now. That was when the relative silence came down on him as a revelation, and he whipped his head to the side, searching his left arm for any traces of black.

Except there were none.

He turned his hand in all directions, flexing his fingers, but Black Zetsu had indeed disappeared. All that was left was torn skin and red patches similar to a burn.

Relief crashed over him, as well as the pain, the tiredness of the fight and the chakra exhaustion. Up until now sleep seemed like a forced and dangerous chore, but right now that’s all he dreamed of. To close his eyes and enter a blissful darkness void of pain and thoughts.

His eyelids were already closing of their own will, but he forced them open with the – very little – strength he had left.

He had to finish what he started, and then… only then could he sleep.

 

Getting up from the ground had never been so tedious in his entire life, and when he finally stood, it was on shaking legs. Turning around, he appreciated the new hole in the end of the room with delight.

No more Gedō Mazō.

As he expected, Madara’s body was still in the same place where he had fallen, so he slowly made his way towards it. When he came closer, he noted the poor state the corpse was in.

Well, now it was more a mummy.

In fact, the corpse was thoroughly dried up. Probably the consequence of being separated from his chakra source, he presumed. The head and torso were soaked in dry blood, that had come pouring down from the gouged out eyes and the bite wound.

Madara was dead, there was no denying it, now that he was close enough. His heart was silent, his chakra flow was gone, and Kurama could smell the characteristic scent of death emanating from the corpse.

Yes, Madara was dead, but as the future had proved, the corpse itself was a threat and had to be destroyed.

 

Kurama closed his eyes and inspected his chakra reserves with attention. They were almost non-existent, but maybe that would be enough for this last technique. Using chakra again now was suicidal, but he couldn’t wait until his reserves were replenished, there was no telling how long the Zetsus would be distracted by Obito, and he had no idea on which side they stood now.

He had never used this technique before. Hell, even Naruto himself had never used it. But Kurama was now in a Uchiha body, and he had the theoretical knowledge thanks to years of Naruto observing Sasuke.

As he formed the tiger hand seal, he filled his lungs with as much air as he could, and gathered what was left of his chakra. He would not be allowed a second try if he messed up this one.

He opened his mouth and released the flames all at once, bathing Madara’s corpse in a steady stream of fire, lighting his dried skin as if it were paper sheets.

Feeling the chakra exhaustion settle in his bones, he was forced to cut the technique short, but the deed was done. The hair and robe had caught on fire as well, and the whole body was already turning black. Soon only ashes and charred bones would be left behind, last remnants of the late Uchiha.

Satisfied, Kurama finally closed his eyes, surrendering to the exhaustion.

He was unconscious before he even hit the ground.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> About the fight: I based myself on the fact that when Naruto undergoes Sage training the toads say to him that people not used to the Sage chakra will be turned to stone, that was the only thing I could think of to kill Black Zetsu in a realistic-ish way :p  
> (Technically Black Zetsu was never "killed" in canon so I had to get creative)
> 
> I did my best don't lynch me hahaha
> 
> If you're curious to see what Zetsu and Guruguru looked like at the time (or if you forgot after so long, which was my case at first) [here](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d0/9b/6b/d09b6b01b175372f33c98243d5745474.png) is a google image of them from the anime.
> 
> Edit: Holy shit we reached more than 100 kudos!! Thank you everybody!!


	6. The intruder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Obito's point of view for the previous chapter's fight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I'm alive! I know the last time I posted was... a while ago, but I promise I haven't dropped the fic, I even write almost everyday :D (I'm just reeeeaaaally slow...). I have so many ideas for how things would turn out in this fic, it's fun to turn all the ideas in my mind :)  
> Also I started my first job so I don't have as much time as before.
> 
> This chapter is not entirely beta'd but I still decided to publish it as it is, and I'll correct it later on.  
> Don't hesitate to tell me if you see grammatical errors and so on!

 

 

The first time Obito had woken up in the weird cavern-like room, he had thought for sure this was the after-life, and the weird old man with long white hair looming over him was death himself…

Turned out the man was Madara Uchiha himself – or at least pretended to be – and wanted him to help create a perfect world, devoid of pain, war and suffering. That seemed like a good goal, admirable even, but Obito couldn’t get to trust the man. There was something fishy about him – starting with the _**stupid**_ prohibition of returning to Konoha – but he had to ban that thought to the back of his mind and focus on getting stronger to _actually_ be able to go back.

 

Strong enough to break that damned boulder obstructing the exit.

 

Fortunately he wasn’t alone with Madara. There were four other weird dudes living here: two of them were fun to hang out with – Zetsu and GuruGuru – but the other two… not so much. Zetsu had explained to him that they were his clones, which was confusing because they clearly didn’t have a mind of their own like the others, and they never disappeared, even when Obito unintentionally kicked one really hard in the face. Maybe Zetsu had meant biological clones, and not shadow clones...

Madara had said that he had been the one who had created these artificial humans to help Obito during his rehabilitation, but he doubted the man had been completely honest with him. There was no way someone would go through the trouble of creating _actual intelligent human beings_ just to look after an injured annoying teenager.

Nobody in their right mind would spend this many resources to save someone like him, even if they were of his own clan… his upbringing in Konoha was proof enough.

 

The only ones who had cared for him had been Minato-sensei, Kuchina, and Rin.

 

And… maybe Kakashi too, in his own twisted grumpy way. Obito wouldn’t have given his eye to just anyone, he was certain Kakashi would make good use of it.

 

He lamented on the fact that he made his teammates cry on _**that**_ day. For sure, by now, everyone thought he was dead. They probably even had thrown away all the stuff in his apartment, too. That sucked. But seeing the look on everyone’s face upon his unexpected return would make all of that _so_ worth it!

 

Motivated once again, Obito got up from his bed where he had been resting and resumed his training with Zetsu and GuruGuru once again.

 

–

 

He was still training with the two artificial humans and having a heated argument with GuruGuru over faeces – _seriously why was this guy obsessed with poop over all things??_ – when both of them stopped dead in their tracks and turned their heads in the same direction.

“An intruder entered the hideout,” declared Zetsu, seemingly pissed off by that fact. “How did they manage to get here? I should have sensed them earlier. Maybe the training distracted me but – “

 

“Is it a shinobi? Are there from Konoha? Can you tell?” Interrupted Obito impatiently, filled with the irrational hope that maybe someone had realized he was still alive, and that they’d followed his trail up until here.

He needed to go talk to them, whoever ‘they’ were. Even if they weren’t from Konoha, they had been able to find an entrance, and that meant they could possibly help him get out.

 

The three of them argued for a while. GuruGuru wanted to go back to the main room help Madara kick out the intruder, Obito wanted to go find that person too to confirm whether he was an ally or not, and Zetsu wanted to keep Obito safe by staying where he was. 

As expected, Obito and Guruguru’s insistence and constant whining eventually convinced Zetsu that all three of them should go together, so they took the tunnel leading to the main room, leaving behind the chamber where Obito had installed his bed.

 

They were still in the tunnel leading to the big statue’s room when an enormous explosion made the ground shake violently under their feet, throwing Obito to his knees. There was a lot of screaming happening in the room in front of them, so he got up as fast as his still weak body allowed him to, and they exited the tunnel.

 

The scene painted in front of them left them speechless and uncertain which course of action to take. The statue at the end of the cavern-like room was now completely gone, in its stead a wide open hole in the stone.

 

It seemed like parts of the ceiling had broken and fallen down, scattering the room with broken rocks of various shapes and sizes.

 

And in the middle of all this chaos stood two men.

 

One of them was Madara, bleeding and resting most of his weight on another man, who was turning his back to them. As Obito stood there in shock, he noticed something that he had missed at his first glance of the scene. Clinging to Madara’s back was a strange...creature? Person?

Even for Obito’s sharp eye, the low light of the cavern added to the heavy dust still floating in the air made it difficult to discern the exact contours of the being, his skin as black as charcoal…

 

Except for his eyes.

His eyes were the exact same shade of yellow as Zetsu, devoid of pupils as well, but and the look he sent Obito’s way was anything but friendly.

There was something deeply wicked about them, something angry and ready to lash out at any given time. That was when he realized Zetsu and Guruguru were frozen as well, captured by the _being_ ’s intense gaze…

 

Obito was now sure of one thing: that _thing_ might be sentient, but it was definitely _not_ human.

 

Before he could even begin to take a guess at the two stranger’s identity, the one with his back turned to Obito suddenly began to move, and raised his arms to… pierce Madara’s eyes with his fingers.

Obito didn’t even have time to process the gruesome scene when in a swift motion, the stranger ripped Madara’s throat off with his bare teeth, showering him with the dying Uchiha’s blood.

Now that Obito’s brain had somehow caught up with the action, his stomach began to lurch and he had to force some quick breaths to not throw up right then and there.

 _What in Sage was happening here?_ _Why did this dude just take a bite out of Madara? And why_ -

 

A shout coming from the other group of three cut Obitos’s questions short.

“So you took down my favorite Uchiha”, snarled the black form. “Well then – “ he said turning his head again in Obito’s direction, smiling all the way with teeth as long and sharp as small shining blades, a massive contrast of ivory white against pitch blackness – “I’ll have the other one instead!!”, and bolted right at the boy.

 

Then everything went too fast for Obito to react. His awakened sharingan was able to keep up, but not his body, which, despite getting stronger every day, was still weakened. He had to watch helplessly as the black shadow-thing launched itself at him, the other stranger on his heels. When they got closer, Zetsu and Guruguru tried to shield Obito from the menace, but the speeding form that came at then only had to bark an order and they unexpectedly moved from his path.

Obito’s brain, unlike his body, was running miles per hour. 

_Why was this thing able to command the artificial humans? Wasn’t Madara the only one allowed to do that?_ Now the fact that this thing possessed the exact same eyes as Zetsu seemed less and less like a coincidence.

 

Unfortunately for Obito, the black form of an arm was already extending rapidly, aiming for his face. The fingers were only inches away, when the strange man who was tailing the shadow – Madara’s blood coating his face and neck like thick paint – managed to catch up to Obito first and he, too, extended his hand at him.

Obito prepared himself for the fatal blow, but was shocked when all the bloodied man did was push him away… with a little bit too much force, he thought as his face painfully crashed into the ground.

 

–

 

When he slowly regained consciousness, the first thought that crossed Obito’s mind was a big and generalized _ouch._ The scary, blood-drenched stranger who had killed Madara had apparently saved his life, but he hadn’t been very gentle about it either, if the bruises already blooming on his skin were any indication. 

“Obito! Are you ok? What happened to you?”

The boy looked up to see Guruguru and Zetsu running to him, worry evident in their fidgety features. Maybe even… _guilt_? They probably felt responsible for not being able to protect Obito back there.

“Were we the ones to… hurt you?”, asked Guruguru hesitantly. “We don’t remember much”.

 

While Guruguru continued fussing over him, Obito looked over at Zetsu. The artificial human seemed lost in his thoughts, directing his gaze at the end of the cavern where Madara’s corpse lay on the ground, towered by the staggering stranger who had been the one to end his life.

Obito wondered if the man was now feeling remorse for his actions, standing motionless like this next to the body, his long black hair covering his face. Maybe he –

As an unexpected stream of fire illuminated the high walls of the room, Obito revised his judgment. Definitely not remorseful, just very thorough… Madara must have had really wronged that guy to deserve this fate.

 

Then, just as unexpectedly, the stranger staggered and fell to the ground, unconscious.

 

Still baffled by what had just happened in the span of a few minutes, Obito, Zetsu and Guruguru looked at each other, unsure of what to do next. But one thing seemed clear enough, even if the passed out man on the ground was still highly dangerous, he was without a doubt in a very vulnerable state right now.

 

Which led them to the obvious next step of action: restraining.

And then forceful interrogation when he would wake up.

 

The three of them would be able to manage…

 

Right?

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who knew writing Obito's POV would be so hard...  
> I don't think I'll be writing different POV from the same event any time soon, or at least not an entire chapter, because I feel like I'm repeating myself too much :/ What do you think?
> 
> My [Tumblr](https://yume-mada.tumblr.com/) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/MadaYume) in case you want to talk or look at my shitty drawings :p
> 
> 9/11/19 update: I finished writing chapter 7, 8 and 9, now I'm waiting for my beta to correct them, and I began writing an extra chapter revolving around Obito, and another one around Kurama ;p
> 
> 4/12/19 update: The extra chapter about Kurama is gonna be a bit smutty ^^ (Back from a short break of writing because I just HAD to read all the chapters available of Golden Kamuy)


	7. A bad aftertaste

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone ^^ my beta reader will be extra busy for a few months so for the time being, my chapters will not be beta-ed  
> Please let me know if you see any mistakes! English isn't my first language

 

 

When he woke up, Kurama pondered sadly on the fact that head-splitting headaches seemed to have become a steady feature in his life. He kept his eyes closed and hoped it would help keep some of the pain at bay.

His tongue felt dry and heavy, and he had a horribly rancid taste lingering in his mouth, as if something had died there when he was passed out. What more? Ah, how could he forget. His body was hurting _all over_. Not good.

Grudgingly, he peeled his eyes open to assess the damage to his limbs and torso. Looking down, he was satisfied to see a glimpse of a healing scar through the hole of his shirt, rather than a bleeding fresh wound.

During his blackout he somehow ended up sitting down, his back against one of the rocky walls of the cavern, not so far from where he originally collapsed, with the hole of the Gedō Mazō on his right. Must have been Obito and his ‘friends’ who dragged him there… but why?

Attempting to sit up and move his arms, he was met with unexpected resistance. Looking this time more thoroughly at his body he noticed his arms and a part of his back were… embedded in the wall?

  
  


With a grunt, he tried to liberate himself from the wall but pain flashed from his left arm and abdomen as if a thousand lightning bolts had passed through him. He winced, and felt flakes of dried blood crack and fall from his face.

 _Ah_. He was still coated in Madara’s blood, his hair and clothes heavy with it.

Disgusted, he realized where the awful taste in his mouth came from, and swore he would avoid to use his teeth in battle from now on, unless absolutely necessary.

  
  


“Sleep well?”

Startled, Kurama looked around him to find the origin of the voice, but a quick look around him ensured he was alone in the large room, the silence only broken by the sound of his breaths. Exhausted as he was, he couldn’t spare chakra to pinpoint the speaker’s location even if he wanted. He really didn’t want to faint again. He felt naked and powerless and hated every passing second of it.

“Up,” advised the voice.

Slowly, Kurama tilted his head back and was met with a moss-haired colorless face adorning a single pupil-less yellow eye.

“Sleep well?” inquired White Zetsu with a wry smile that exposed his blunt teeth, the bottom part of his body emerging directly from the wall above Kurama’s head. Since White Zetsu was able to do this kind of merging-with-the ground kinda trick, that meant that right now, Kurama was actually retained by an extension of the artificial human’s body…

 _**Ew.** _ ****

“Peachy. Now release me you pasty _fucker_.”

White Zetsu squinted his eye, visibly confused.

“I restrained you while you were unconscious, and I don’t don’t think I’ve initiated anything close to intercourse with you to earn this title,” he declared, making Kurama choke a little at the insinuation, “And I can’t release you yet, we wanted to interrogate you first… “ He seemed to hesitate. “And then we’ll decide to free you or not.”

Kurama huffed in response to the threat. Yes, he was restrained and weakened, but still alive. He could deal with that. He had worked with worse odds before.

“Where’s the kid?” he inquired, “I’m taking him back to Konoha and you better not try to stop me, he has nothing to do with you disgusting lot.”

“Oh? And how do you know he’s from Konoha to begin with?” Kurama maintained his face devoid of reaction but cursed inwardly, blaming the blood loss and the exhaustion for his carelessness, as White Zetsu continued his line of thought. “He didn’t seem to recognize you and you don’t harbor the customary Hitai-ate…” he scrunched his nose, “Plus you look like a mercenary… ” He stopped to turn a more critical eye on his prisoner.

“… a very shady mercenary,” he added.” There is no way we can leave Obito in your care.”

“Don’t give me that shit! I’m not the one locking him down there!”

They were silently glaring daggers at each other when voices reached Kurama’s sensitive ears from the back tunnel, and soon the voices became clear enough to recognize Obito and the second White Zetsu, engaged in a heated conversation about… _poop_?

“… no because that’s disgusting and I will not – “ Obito interrupted himself when he noticed Kurama’s eyes trained on him.

“Hey he’s awake!” he exclaimed and picked up his pace, leaving his discontent counterpart behind. Or… was he discontent? Difficult to tell since he had no proper _face…_ Which reminded Kurama of someone, or something – now that he was close enough and aware enough to take a good look at the artificial human’s face – but the thought kept slipping away. God damn it he really needed to sleep didn’t he?

When the two finally reached them, the first White Zetsu detached himself from the wall to stand beside Obito, who was eyeing Kurama with a wary eye. The kid seemed fidgety and unsure of how to proceed, which was a sane and understandable response, he _was_ a dangerous and unpredictable creature after all. It was nice to see people still feared him even in this human body, he thought gleefully.

The first one to break the silence was the artificial human with the strange swirl pattern instead of a face, pointing an accusing finger at Kurama’s face.

“Ha!” he erupted, “feeling less powerful and almighty now that you’re tied up, uh, murderer? We won’t let you harm Obito! He’s under our protection!”

“Funny, white face, I was under the impression that I was the one who saved his life, and you are the ones keeping him locked up down here.”

The Zetsu who had trapped him against the wall frowned but didn’t move from where he was, and Obito was the one to put himself between Kurama and the fuming artificial human before it could degenerate.

“Don’t call him white face! They both have names and they’re not hurting me, they helped me train so I could get back to Konoha by myself!”

Kurama wanted to roll his eyes back oh so much, but that wouldn’t help winning the kid’s trust, so he settled for a septic glare and raised eyebrow. Naruto and young Obito seemed pretty similar, so he guessed arguing now would only fall into deaf ears. Friendship before logic.

“Yeah we have names ya know? Of course we would have names, we are artificially created humans, superior to the human race itself!” Swirley face dramatically pointed his thumb at his chest. “The name’s Tobi, but Obito…” who he designated at the same time with a hand gesture, “...calls me Guruguru.”

Kurama startled. _Wait._ _Tobi?_ That’s why his face seemed familiar! Did future Obito seriously base his persona ‘Tobi’ on _THAT_ guy? _Really_?

“And his name – ” he continued while pointing his index at the other artificial human who was stoically observing the scene without leaving Kurama out of his sight “ – is Zetsu. Call us by our names from now on, bastard.”

 _What the…_ Kurama couldn’t help his jaw from drop ping a little. Only one of them was named Zetsu, which could only mean one thing: in front of him stood the _original_ Zetsu, the one who was meant to fuse with Black Zetsu in the future.

It would have been hilarious if it wasn’t so downright… _insane_.

“Hey old man, what’s _your_ name” inquired Obito, “you don’t look like a ninja and you don’t wear a Hitai-ate, are you a missing-nin?” he bit his nail, lost in thoughts. “But I thought even missing-nins wore it, so maybe you’re not a ninja? But if you’re not a ninja why did you come here? If you came for Madara it means people have been aware that he was still alive, and… – “

“Kid, slow down your mumbling.” Kurama interrupted him and sighed in desesperation. Naruto had been the only human he had allowed to know and use his real name. But he was human now and he had resigned himself to act as such.

“My name is Kurama, and no, I can’t really be considered a ninja, but I’m as capable as them.”

 _If not more_ , he added under his breath, then cursed himself. He really had to stop listening to his pride, humans were more prone to trust someone who was acting modest and humble.

“And why did you kill Madara?” demanded Zetsu.

Kurama attempted to answer as carefully as he could. If he held back too much information Zetsu would be able to tell, but he couldn’t give too much either, or it would blow up in his face later for sure.

“The old man was only a puppet. I was after the one manipulating him from the shadows, but since he was the host I had to kill him to force it out.”

“By ‘ _it’_ do you mean the black, uh… thing, that went for me?” Obito was obviously confused by the chain of events.

“Yes, rallying Uchihas to its cause by manipulating them was the objective. But since I killed Madara and you barged into the room at the same time he went for you.”

“Wait, how do you know I’m a Uchiha.”

Kurama sighed _._ _Of course_ that would be what Obito would focus on.

“Because I have a pair of working eyes and ears, as well as a brain, and especially a good working nose” deadpanned Kurama. If the boy had the same attention spam as Naruto he would hopefully drop the subject.

“I don’t smell _bad_!” he exclaimed as if someone had insulted his mother or kicked his dog. _Ha,_ _way_ _too easy._

“To me all Uchihas smell bad, so don’t take it too personal kid.”

Zetsu, who had stayed quiet during the exchange, stepped up. “Too much beating around the bush, I don’t want to restrain you forever, so answer this one question and don’t even think of lying, I would know.” He came closer to Kurama.

“Do you plan on harming Obito if I release you?”

Kurama wondered why Zetsu was still so protective of Obito even now that Black Zetsu was dead. Was it genuine? Was _Zetsu_ of all people capable of that?

 _Well that was a bit hypocritical_ , he realized darkly.

“No, I won’t hurt the boy, but I _**will**_ take him back to the surface and then his village, and you can’t stop me from doing that. Look at him, he’s so pale he’s almost see-through.”

Tobi, on his part – or Guruguru, _how the hell was he supposed to call him in the end_? – didn’t seem to accept his explanations and started an argument which Kurama immediately zoned out of. It seemed like he had a grudge against Kurama for killing Madara, because he had really believed in the “perfect vision” of the future the Uchiha wanted to install.

Turning his attention inwardly, Kurama was pleased to feel the most severe wounds on his body were almost completely healed and his chakra reserve – even if still quite low – was starting to replenish itself. On the other hand though… he glanced at his side. It seemed like his left arm had suffered the most damage overall, and will probably harbor a scarred appearance from shoulder to fingers until the end of his life. Well, this _human body’s life_.

Kurama shrugged it off. As long at the arm was functional, his appearance was the last of his concerns.

Focusing back on the conversation happening in front of him, he interrupted Obito mid-sentence. “So, are you guys going to kill me or release me? Because either way my neck’s getting stiff, so make it quick.”

Obito and Zetsu looked at each other like they were considering it, but Kurama was no fool. He could tell from they eyes and the general aura around them that they had no intention of killing him. They probably took their decision way before he woke up, and the rest had been an attempt at making him talk.

“We are going to release you,” announced Obito, “but at two conditions,” He added.

 _Figured_.

“Condition number one! You take me out of that cave and help me get back to Konoha.”

 _Well_ , thought Kurama, _this one was easy enough since he already planned to do that and even said it before. So what was the catch?_

“Condition number two,” continued Obito, “Zetsu and Guruguru are coming with us!”

Kurama closed his eyes. _Friendship before logic,_ he repeated to himself. That kid was so very much like Naruto.

At least he was looking forward to see Hiruzen’s reaction to their little merry band.

  
  


 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It feels like Kurama and Zetsu have transformed themselves into babysitters ^^  
> Btw, I'm not weird, Guruguru does talk a lot about bowel movements in the anime/manga (in case you wondered about my sanity and tasteless sense of humor)
> 
> How do you think Hiruzen will react to their little group?
> 
> Edit: Holy sh*t guys we reached more than 200 kudos!! Thank you to everyone of you that made that possible :D


	8. Welcome home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A late Christmas gift for you all! I hope you had a good time celebrating with friends and family :D
> 
> It took me some time to write and correct this chapter, there are parts I'm proud of and others... well, not so much xD  
> I'm still trying to get by without my lovely beta, so if you see any mistakes, don't hesitate to point it out!

 

 

 

Floating around in the warm water of the underground natural hot spring Obito had led him to, Kurama’s consciousness was slowly coming out of him like lazy waves in a calm pond, his long dark hair fanning around his head like the corolla of a deadly exotic flower.

It had been like… what, three days since he had come back from the grave? _Or was it four_ _already_ _?_ He had began losing track of time already. And only now that he slowly relaxed – tension oozing out of him and mixing with the water akin to the blood on his skin – did he realize how stressed out he had been ever since he had woken up in that coffin.

He still had his guard up though, the contrary would have been reckless and… unlike him. He was still in enemy territory, even if the enemy was dead.

As if looking for reinsurance he carefully split his eyelids open and glanced at his left arm. Black Zetsu indeed no longer inhabited the limb, but the deep scars that ran along it were an indubitable testament to how close Kurama had been to lose.

Trying to escape the dark thoughts that would immediately come if he dwelled too much, he submerged himself completely and scrubbed at his scalp vigorously…

Which resulted in cutting himself and nearly drowning when he let out a surprised shout.

How _the fuck_ was he able to make his body function like a proper human but forget about the _**damn claws**_? He had had sharper and way more dangerous claws before this whole body swapping thing and he had _never_ cut himself with them.

He broke the water’s surface with an undignified pit of coughing, his face rapidly heating up in a mix of shame and anger when he realized he wasn’t alone anymore.

“Stop spying on me asshole, I can sense you,” he spit out once he got control over his ragged breathing, glaring at an inconspicuous spot in the ceiling.

“Oh?” let out a voice after a little while, when it seemed obvious Kurama was not letting the matter slide. “I thought nobody was able to sense me once I phased through matter.”

“Why are _you_ able to do that?” Inquired Zetsu’s upper half, dangling from the ceiling, smartly staying far from claws’ reach. “You seem to know more than you let on.”

Kurama decided to ignore the no-so-subtle distrust in the artificial human’s voice. “You’d really like to know now, do you?” Two could play this game, and he was determined to win it. He adopted his most relaxed stance and laid back expression, and calmly resumed his bathing as if nothing had interrupted him in the first place.

After a while of loaded silence only interrupted by the gentle sound of splashing water, and having realized the raven haired man was done speaking with him, Zetsu’s only eye twitched in annoyance. “If you decide to do anything shady to Obito on the way to Konoha, I’ll be making sure you’re not a threat to anyone ever again” he challenged.

“Right back at ya” retorted Kurama, but the other’s presence had already vanished.

Slightly annoyed that he didn’t manage to get a bigger rise out of the other, Kurama got closer to the stone borders of the basin to grab his tattered clothes. Or what was left of them…

But he didn’t have anything else to wear, and since arriving butt naked at the front gate of Konoha was… not an option he particularly wanted to explore, he scrubbed the blood out of the fabric and put them to dry on the hot rocks at the edge of the bathing cave.

If after that he went back again in the deliciously burning water to soak some more and only exited it when his skin started to prune all over, well, nobody was there to judge him.

 

–

 

It was still the middle of the night when they left Madara’s hideout into the crisp night air of the mountain, leaving behind them the shattered boulder that was once obstructing the entrance.

Obito was shivering violently already – he only had his uniform’s pants left – so Kurama removed his own shirt with a sigh and threw it at the boy, ordering him to either put it on or freeze. There was a large hole at the center of the chest and it was missing a sleeve – plus it gave off a vile smell that Kurama had failed to remove even through many washings – but at least it was warm.

Something tugged at Kurama’s chest at the sight of the young boy struggling to put the oversize piece of clothing and letting a relieved sigh when it finally blocked the night breeze from hitting his skin. Kurama didn’t want to put the finger – or claw – on the emotion that bubbled up inside his chest, so he pushed it down and decided to ignore it as long as possible, urging Obito to climb on his back, so they could _finally_ depart.

They had decided earlier on that the easiest and fastest arrangement for them to travel would be for Kurama to carry Obito, who’d indicate them the way to Konoha – because Kurama _wasn’t_ _supposed to know_ about its location – and that Tobi and Zetsu would follow behind them, respectively on foot or in the ground.

Kurama watched as Zetsu sealed the entrance once again and wondered somberly if leaving the hideout only half-destroyed was wise. He had made sure there was nothing left of the Gedō Mazō and the giant flowering tree behind it, but he couldn’t feel at ease knowing what could be done with Hashirama’s cells, if anyone ever found some again.

As they took off in a run, he promised to himself on coming back alone as soon as possible to finish destroying every single room and passageways that hid below the mountain. You know… just to be sure.

 

–

 

Traveling back to the land of fire went without incident – except maybe Obito requesting a pause to go take a piss and almost falling off a cliff he didn’t see, seriously how did the kid manage to stay alive for so long? – and the temperature finally went up again starting mid-day, which Kurama was grateful for.

When at last Obito indicated that the village wasn’t very far, Kurama reduced his speed enough to finally end up walking on the path that led to the main gate. Running at full speed towards the entrance of a hidden ninja village was just plain suicidal, and Kurama really didn’t want to go off against all the fighters the village had to offer, even if that number had probably been greatly reduced by the war.

He wanted food and a bed badly enough that his pride wouldn’t even mind getting it out of pity from Konoha. He even counted on the fact that they would allow him to stay for a few days out of _gratitude_ for bringing Obito back, but pity would have to do too.

Zetsu emerged from the ground beside his white counterpart and all three of them adopted what would hopefully be seen as a casual walk, and not an ominous approach. With the three of them looking like they did, there wasn’t much they could do about it, and Kurama just hoped the guards at the entrance wouldn’t be too twitchy and prone to categorize them as a threat.

Obito, who had been uncharacteristically quiet during the last hours of the trip, was starting to get suspiciously fidgety on Kurama’s back, who prompted him to either stop his squirming or walk.

The large wooden gate wasn’t even into view yet when Kurama felt a pair of eyes trained on him, in par with a few well hidden presences in the trees bordering the dirt path they were walking on. He deduced there were at least two Anbus monitoring them, and that the guards and maybe even the Hokage had been warned of their presence already.

When the two guards at the gate finally came into view and loudly questioned them about their identity and intentions, Kurama was suddenly grateful for Obito’s incapacity to shut up during the first part of the trip to Konoha. He now had an excuse to know things he wouldn’t have known otherwise.

“Hey! “ He called out to the closest Anbu, trying to focus his gaze on where their face should be. “Go fetch a guy named Minato,” he turned slightly to display Obito better.” We found his student.”

He was satisfied to feel a brief flash of surprised chakra burst coming from the Anbu, who quickly vanished. That slip in their composure probably meant they either knew Minato or Obito personally, and would relay the information as fast as possible.

Kurama’s smugness rapidly vanished when he caught a whiff of fear-stress-apprehension coming from… _Obito_? The boy was finally back to his village and friends, why did it feel like he was ready to flee any second now?

“Kid, I’d appreciate if you didn’t strangle me in front of Konoha’s gate, release the death grip will ya?”

Obito sheepishly loosened his grip on Kurama’s neck and mumbled an apology in a hushed tone as he he was deposited to the ground by the taller man.

_What?_ _Physical contact sometimes help lower stress._ _I’m stressed._ _Don’t judge me,_ Naruto had told him a long time ago – although in a completely different context – so Kurama put a reluctant hand on top of Obito’s head, and impulsively ruffled it.

The boy looked up at him in surprise and opened his mouth, but whatever he was about to say was cut short by a flash of yellow and the sound of rustling leaves.

“Aaah, I’m really sorry it took me some time, did you finally found Kakash… ”

Right now, Konoha’s Yellow Fash, future Yondaime and one of the strongest of the village was a sight to behold, snickered Kurama. Frozen in place, eyes staring wide and mouth agape, Minato could only stutter.

“O… Obito?” His voice was low and hesitant, his hand slowly reaching up as if his student would vanish into thin air if he did so much as blink or move too fast.

“Hi Minato-sensei, I… ” the boy stammered, “I’m sorry I couldn’t come back earlier, I… I really wanted to but there was this old guy and – “

It seemed like Minato had regained his ability to move and had crushed Obito in a tight hug, transforming the rest of the boy’s sentence in an unintelligible muffle… Which turned into sniffles then full on sobbing when Minato began to cry about being so glad his student was alive and how it had been his fault in the first place and –

Kurama tuned the cries out once he realized they would be at it for a while, and focused instead on Minato’s appearance. He wore the customary olive green flack jacket… devoid of the white Hokage’s cloak.

Kurama had known since his eyes had landed on the Hokage’s Rock a few days back, but he had refused to form the thought up until now – especially knowing the Hogage’s faces embeded in the rock took quite some time to assemble. But with the living proof of Minato being treated and dressing like a regular ninja, and knowing that Kushina became pregnant only _after_ Minato became Hokage, he could not ignore the reality any further.

Obviously Naruto wasn’t born yet, but he knew that already, and even if it had been traumatic enough on its own, it meant something else. Something _worse…_

_Naruto hadn’t even been conceived yet_.

Kurama already had disrupted the original timeline with no ways of turning back… Would it be possible for the same Naruto to be born once again? But even if that was the case, it would never be _his_ Naruto anyway, the orphan boy who had to face the hate of an entire village would not exist in this timeline. So what was Kurama supposed to do? Make sure Minato and Kushina’s marriage went for the best, leading to blissful marital sex and the potential birth of the shadow of someone he knew??

This was _**so**_ ridiculous, _**he**_ was getting ridiculous! Naruto _had_ to be born again, and if not… well, one thing at a time. He couldn’t stalk Kushina, the village would know of it immediately. Maybe in the meantime he could plan to –

Someone was talking to him.

“Uh, what?”

Obito looked at him like Kurama had hit his head. “Minato-sensei asked for your name.” Everyone was looking at him. The other two probably introduced themselves already.

“Ah, uhm… “ he cleared his throat, giving him time to recover some composure. “Kurama. Nice to… meet ya.”

Minato – _thank fuck_ – didn’t comment on his behavior and continued on. “Well Kurama, thank you so much – ” he turned to the artificial humans, “thank all of you for bringing Obito back home. I am in your debt,” and bowed to all three of them.

Kurama felt slightly offended they all received the same praise. “I’ve been the one to get him out of the geezer’s hands. They did nothing but watch and keep him from getting out.”

“You were down there only for a few hours,” retorted Zetsu. “What would you know about us?”

“Oh I think I know just enough. Tell me, did you ever _try_ to help him escape?”

Zetsu fell silent, looking pissed as hell, but also a bit remorseful too.

“Even if we wanted to we couldn’t! Madara-sama forbid us to let him out!” Interrupted Tobi.

At the mention of the late Uchiha’s name, Minato’s full attention – as well as the Anbus in the trees that Kurama could still feel – focused like a snap on Tobi, and then Obito.

Minato’s sky blue eyes darkened with a frown. “I think we should take this conversation to the Hokage.” He had suggested it in a way that his casual tone didn’t leave any space for refusal. It reminded Kurama that even if most of the time, the man looked as inoffensive as a kitten – yes, Kushina’s memories did hold a lot of images of the man cooking and doing the dishes in a pink apron – he didn’t earn his titles from nothing, and was terrifyingly deadly when he wanted to.

Well, at least for the other humans here. And Kurama didn’t really consider himself to be _human._

Plus he already _did_ managed to kill Minato the first time around, genius ninja or not, and even if Kurama hadn’t been entirely himself at the time, the strength to do so had been _his_.

Yet, killing the Yellow Flash was not something he was proud of, not anymore at least. He had been manipulated, an instrument to Obito’s madness that had given him an half-assed and very short lived vengeance, and had paved the road of the failed future that he knew of.

The feeling of being observed pulled Kurama out of his thoughts.

They were on their way to the Hokage Tower, and a lot of heads had turned to their little procession going up the main street. It seemed like the onlookers couldn’t chose who to look at between a ragged Obito, – for those who could still recognize him – two artificial humans and a long-haired and shirtless stranger.

Swirley-face seemed to bath in the attention he was getting, even going out of his way to wave at the most curious bystanders, and Zetsu looked like he’d prefer to be anywhere but here. Kurama bet his – now non-existent he remembered too late – nine tails that the artificial human would rather merge into the floor and hide away until the commotion had quieted down. It was kind of expected of someone versed in spying and hiding themselves all the damn time, that they wouldn’t appreciate when the attention would be turned on them. Especially if it was the attention of a whole village.

Minato on the other hand only had eyes for his student, who was being carried by the mouse mask Anbu walking to the front, fussing over every single scratch on him, worry evident on his face when Obito’s shirt rose a bit higher, exposing paper-white skin and protruding ribs. Even when the blond had made sure that the boy was indeed fine – sun deprived, skinny and in a general state of weakness, but indeed alive and spared of any life threatening injuries – he hovered close, as if afraid of touching, a guilty gleam in his eyes.

A thought crossed Kurama’s mind. _Minato_ _would make a good father_. It would be a good thing if Naruto could grow up with both of his parents this time. That sunshine boy deserved all the love he could get, and so so much more…

 

The crowd finally seemed to thin out when they arrived at the end of the village and came to a halt in front of the circular construction holding the Hokage Tower.

As they were climbing the stairs to the upper floors, Kurama reflected idly on the fact that the building held the title ‘Tower’ in it’s name, yet the red and yellow construction hardly reached the same height as the tallest houses in the village, its round complexion only managing to accentuate the sensation of entering a local inn rather than the building that held Konoha’s strongest and most respected ninja.

“Stay there until Hokage-sama calls for you,” Mouse mask ordered them – minus Obito and Minato who were promptly taken down the corridor, where Kurama knew Hiruzen’s office sat – gesturing to a windowless room, posting themselves at the entrance to stand guard.

The faint waves of chakra Kurama could sensecome and go indicated that the whole building was swarming with activity, even if they had barely seen anyone when entering, and that probably a few Anbus more had been assigned to keep an eye on them from the shadows.

Ignoring the two pale figures stuck in the room with him, Kurama took seat on the floor, back resting against the wall and arms crossed behind his head, pointedly disregarding the many chairs present in the room.

They would probably have to wait for Obito to tell his story to Hiruzen before being asked all sorts of questions to decide of their involvement, no need to put his ass on an uncomfortable piece of wood while it happened.

 

–

 

An hour or two into the wait – Kurama couldn’t see outside so it was a bit harder to evaluate the time that had passed, but he supposed the sky was already darkening by now – another Anbu, tiger mask this time, presented him a shirt and ordered the sitting man to wear it, and as soon as Kurama deigned take it, declared the Hokage was now ready to hear all three of them.

The shirt was black and sleeveless, leaving both shoulders bare, probably from someone’s Anbu uniform. Kurama raised it to his nose and was satisfied when all he could smell was clean soap and lavender. The sides of his mouth crept upward thinking about the poor soul that just lost a spare shirt so that the indecency of the half-naked stranger in the waiting room wouldn’t make Hiruzen pop a vein.

Discarding the shirt and going topless anyway was tempting, but cockiness could only get him so far and he had to ensure his right to stay in Konoha for at least a few nights, so he put the shirt on and followed Tiger mask with Zetsu and Tobi, all four of them entering the Hokage’s office through the imposing wooden doors, leaving behind them the badly lit corridor.

 

The first thing Kurama noticed upon entering was the smell. It was the first time his human nose had to be submitted to the pungent smell of tobacco, and he couldn’t retain himself from wrinkling his nose out of reflex.

Hiruzen’s hawk-like eyes on him forced Kurama to relax his face and immediately adopt an impassible expression. Kurama cursed inwardly. He had made a disgusting face when he had entered the room and of course Hiruzen had seen it. Nobody seemed to be bothered by the lingering smoke and he just hoped the man wouldn’t assume he had made a face for other reasons than the smell.

Once he was sure his expression was devoid of any emotion he could be feeling at the moment, he took a moment to assess all the people present in the room – all of them he knew already, Hiruzen, Minato and Obito, as well as Tiger mask behind him closing the door, and Mouse mask hidden just outside the window – and almost froze when he slightly turned his head around.

The man had been hidden by the doors opening inwardly, his smell covered by the tobacco smoke, but there he was in one of the back corner, comfortably sited in a small sofa which gave his single exposed eye the better view of the room while smartly staying out of most people’s sight.

Kurama slowly turned around again, and this time addressed a quiet thank-you to the disgusting scent of Hiruzen’s pipe, which had allowed him to steel himself and not react when he had discovered _that man_ behind him

This was the worst.

Kurama never had imagined he would have to prove good faith to the village with _Danz_ _ō_ _Shimura_ , of all people, watching his fucking back.

“Well, now that we’re all here, I would like to hear _your_ part of the story…” There was an interrogation in Hiruzen’s voice while he eyed down the three of them, to which Kurama simply replied to with his name.

“My name is Zetsu, and this is my… “ the artificial human hesitated, “… brother. His name i– “

“Tobi!” the other one exclaimed. “That’s my name! But I like to be called Guruguru too!” Zetsu elbowed him before he could talk too much, and glared at him to deter any more passionate speech. Seemed like at least one of them had common sense.

“Obito told me you were artificial humans created by Madara Uchiha himself.” Hiruzen picked up his pipe from the desk, lit it with a small fire jutsu – show-off – and took slow drags out of it. “I’d be interested to know more about that if you will.”

 

 

As Zetsu related their lives as Madara’s aids – as objectively as possible noted Kurama – he allowed himself to steal glances around to gather the general mood of the room and its occupants. Minato was somber, looking beyond the darkened sky through the window, lost in thoughts. Obito still smelled like stress and exhaustion, slowly shifting his weight from one foot to the other, his gaze focused on the ground, and Hiruzen was –

“Kurama-san, would you happen to be of Inuzuka or Uchiha descent by any chance?”

– asking him a question. So it seemed Kurama wasn’t the only one to think that his new body looked like a mix between these two clans.

He shrugged his shoulders, feigning disinterest. “Never knew my progenitors, the only man I ever considered a father was the one who adopted me and my siblings.” It wasn’t technically a lie, because even if the Sage of Six Paths had – in a way – given them life, they were not his biological children.

Hiruzen hummed pensively. “And where did you grow up?”

“Here and there, where people accepted us, but each of us went separate ways. I mainly stayed in the Land of Fire most of my life.” _Not really_ _by choice,_ he added in his head.

“Now Kurama-san, I would appreciate if you could explain to all of us present here what exactly was your implication with the man who called himself Madara Uchiha, and your motive for killing him.”

The man reclined in his chair and intertwined his hands atop his white cloak, his apparent calm and relaxed demeanor not diminishing in the least the pressure from the man’s dense and polished chakra.

Was Hiruzen trying to intimidate _him_?

“Oh, and please know that if I feel like you are lying to my face or holding back too much information, I will regrettably have to let other people, more _competent_ people, ask you the right questions.”

Which was basically a polite and roundabout way of saying _‘if you try to lie to me I will let the T &I dig into your head until we know every single detail about you every since you were born, __unfortunately_ _turn_ _ing you_ _into a_ _useless and_ _drooling empty shell.’_

Half-truths and oversights weren’t technically lies, right? Kurama really didn’t want a Yamanaka, or worse, a Uchiha inside his head.

“I killed the old Uchiha to get to the entity that murdered my siblings. It was using Madara as a host so his death was necessary. And I don’t like Uchihas anyway. They’re untitled assholes that think they’re the shit.”

“The child you saved is an Uchiha, you know,” pointed Hiruzen, an eyebrow raised in confusion.

“Yeah, yeah. But he’s just a kid, plus he’s not really an Uchiha anyway.”

Obito ticked and Hiruzen frowned – his eyebrows making a dive this time – “What do you mean by that?”

“The kid has _a sense of_ _humor_ _,_ for Kage’s sake! And he talks _way_ too much, plus I’ve seen him smile at least twice. So, I repeat myself. Not entirely Uchiha.”

Hiruzen hummed in an understanding tone, but didn’t let himself deviate from the original conversation. “And why did this… entity decide to go after your family?”

Kurama hesitated. He knew he had to give something solid to Konoha’s leader, so he decided to give up the secrecy to the thing most likely to be discovered anyway.

“Not one of us looked like the other, wherever it was our physical appearance or our personalities and temperament. But there was one thing we all had in common… “ Kurama bathed smugly in the tensed air in the room, everyone hanging from his lips.

“All of us naturally possessed immense chakra reserves, which is why it went for us. That thing developed a way to absorb our chakra and transfer it to itself.”

Kurama didn’t like how he could practically _feel_ Danzō’s gaze trained on his exposed back right now, making his hair stand to no end. He chastised himself for not completely destroying the rest of the tunnels before leaving for Konoha, and hoped he had been right, and that nothing was left for the man to exploit.

Hiruzen seemed pensive. “Yet you managed to kill it, even if it absorbed you siblings chakra… which makes me think, how many siblings did you have exactly?”

Kurama hesitated. “I had eight siblings, but I see where you’re going and I’m stopping you right here.” _Damn that_ _monkey’s_ _quick thinking_. “It was more powerful after absorbing my sibling’s chakra, but apparently it could only get the full power of all their chakra _after_ obtaining the reserves of all nine of us.”

Hiruzen looked pensive. “And how big exactly would you say _your_ chakra reserves were?”

_The old Hokage did really decide to be a damn pain in the ass until the end, didn’t he?_ “That’s kind of hard to tell, it’s not like it could be measured.”

“Well let’s say compared to a Jinchūriki.” Hiruzen paused. “Have you met one before?” Since the question was closed-ended, Kurama had no choice but answer in the affirmative, which seemed to please the cloaked man.

“So. How would your reserves compare to a Jinchūriki?”

“I’d say more or less the same,” he admitted.

 

There was a lull in the room. Danzō’s glare on his back was almost palpable at this point.

Hiruzen, on his end, was giving him a look that somehow oscillated between amused, bewildered, distrustful and confused.

Kurama briefly wondered how long he had until T&I would be on his tail, forcing him to flee Konoha to avoid a thorough brain-wash.

Which was why he didn’t expect the calm and casual question from Hiruzen, who had reclined in his chair and let down his pipe, as if they had been talking about the weather moments ago.

“And what will you do now that you’ve exerted you vengeance, young man?” To Kurama it felt like he was playing a game of Shōgi where his opponent’s pieces where hidden from his sight. Did Hiruzen wanted him to leave as soon as possible? Or maybe he wanted him to stay and try to take advantage of his power? Was planning to restrain, imprison and torture him to ascertain the veracity of his story?

Fuck it, he was going with the original plan, and see where it leaded from there. He didn’t have the patience to develop a smart and well thought out plan like the Nara were so found of.

“The truth is… “ he faked a sheepish look and scratched his head – careful of his claws this time – , looking down as if ashamed to ask for a favor, “I hoped the village could let me stay at least a few days to recover. I don’t have any money but I can work to pay for my expenses.”

“I don’t think there’s need for that,” declared Hiruzen, his chair creaking softly when he leaned on his wooden desk. “You brought back a shinobi of our village, a child that everyone thought dead, so the least we can do is host you for a little while.” He turned his face to the artificial humans. “The same goes for you two, if you want to stay.”

An offended intake of breath was heard behind him, but it was so controlled Kurama doubted anyone but him heard –

“Hiruzen! You cannot be thinking of letting that kind of _people_ roam freely inside Konoha!”

Well… now they definitely did hear him, the sound of his cane rhythmically tapping on the ground, in tunewith its holder’s voice. He had spat out the word ‘people’ with such disgust, that Kurama almost turned around to gut the man. Which he absolutely did, and repeated many times with glee.

In his head of course.

Danzō was still blathering about security in the village when Hiruzen interrupted him dryly.

“I hear your concerns my friend, but I assure you they will not be left without surveillance, and the rest can at least wait until tomorrow. We are all very tired and it would be torture for young Obito to stay closed up in this office any longer.” His face loosened while looking at the boy and he added softly, “I’m sure he has close people he would like to see after such a long time, and reassure them of his coming back home.”

Danzō’s face contorted as if Hiruzen had forced him to swallow a lemon – peel and seeds included –, but backed down from the argument with a slight bow of his head.

Hiruzen clapped his hands, summoning Mouse mask inside the room, and giving them instructions on where to take their ‘guests’, before bidding everyone good night and not subtly forcing them out of the room with a pointed look.

Only Danzō stayed behind when the door closed, apparently not done with Hiruzen for the night and ready to plead his cause until the Hokage complied to his demands. It didn’t really make a difference in Kurama’s opinion, he knew the one-eyed man would insist until he’d have what he wanted, but would find a way to have it anyway if he was denied.

The thought of a warm bed to pass the night was so delightful that Kurama tuned out all the noise and conversations around him as they all descended the Hokage tower and out in the street, only to be violently brought back down to earth when he felt the presence of a very familiar chakra.

It was faint and controlled, asleep, buried under seals and barriers, but nonetheless, it was _his_.

Only then did his eyes register a patch of bright disheveled red hair down the street in front of them, heading in their direction at a quick pace, and only then did he realize he had no idea how to act in front of the terrifying Red Hot Habanero, and briefly wondered if she – of all people – would be able to tell who he was.

Should he make a run for it? No, that would make him even more suspicious.

But it was already too late anyway, Kushina Uzumaki – flanked with what seemed to be one of Minato’s shadow clone and… Obito’s female teammate? Both of them struggling to keep up – skid to a halt in front of their small group.

As soon as she caught sight of Obito, she threw herself at him, enveloping him in a bone crushing hug.

“Ku- Kushina-nee san, I can’t breath… “ could be heard faintly coming from somewhere underneath all that red hair, only to be ignored by the woman in question. When the young girl added herself to the human pile, the desperate noises underneath got muffled even further.

When both females finally burst into relieved tears, squishing Obito even further, Kurama peaked from behind Zetsu’s shoulder to study his former Jinchūriki with curiosity.

It was kind of disturbing to feel… _himself_ , but outside of his own body. It was like sensing the chakra of a perfected shadow clone, but knowing that it was actually him, a slightly younger him.

Yet, still _hi_ _m_ , kept hidden inside Konoha fiercest kunoichi.

Kurama was glad that his past self was currently trapped under so many layers of seals, and asleep most of the time. He had changed so much in the last few decades that it seemed like it would be impossible to see eye-to-eye with the fox that was still feeling like a prisoner inside an unfair receptacle.

Since Kushina hadn’t even looked at him yet meant that his transfer to a human body had altered his chakra signature enough to feel dissimilar from his old one. At least for people who didn’t really _know_ him as a whole.

Just as he had finished the thought, Kushina lifted her head from the human pile they had formed and began looking around her with a confused look on her face, like a cat recognizing the scent of a prey but being unable to determine where it exactly came from.

Her eyes met with Kurama and she seemed to hesitate for a second that felt like eternity, but already her attention was – thankfully – turned back on Obito.

Seemed like the changed chakra signature had been correct, but Kurama didn’t want to test it any further and decided to avoid the woman as much as possible in the upcoming days. Once she had an idea in her head she was as stubborn as a mule, doubled of a monkey and a badger.

It was when Tobi menaced to throw himself on top of the crying pile to join in on the reunion that Kushina and… Rin? He wasn’t sure of the name. Whatever. _The girl_ – seemed to regain their senses and realize that they had been making a scene in the middle of the street, and in front of the Hokage Tower. Red painted their cheeks as they detached themselves from the poor flattened Obito, yet staying at arm’s length at all time.

From then on the large group separated in two: on one side Kushina, Minato and his two students, leaving in the direction of where Kurama remembered was the couple’s apartment before it got destroyed in the first timeline, and on the other Kurama, Zetsu and Tobi, flanked by Mouse mask to show them their staying place in the near future.

_Please don’t let it be dirty barracks_ , pleaded Kurama as they were led to an extremity of the already darkening village.

 

–

 

An hour and a half later, being fed, clean and warm, Kurama finally let himself submerge in something akin to satisfaction about his current situation. He had played his cards appropriately, and even if things could have gone way better for him – like not getting thrown back in time even further than his best friend’s birth, alone, and in a human body… yeah, _fuck that_ – he had single-highhandedly avoided the mass-destruction goddess that had been Kaguya. With the knowledge he had from the past he would be able to destroy all of Naruto’s past enemies, before some of them would even consider turning rogue.

Kurama knew that if Naruto had been there he would have chastised him, saying something along the lines of ‘ _now that you’re decades back in time you should try to save_ _these people so they would never become bad guys in the first place, ‘tebayo!!’’_

Maybe he _could_ try acting like Naruto, now that there was no immediate threat to Konoha. The last few years fighting Kaguya had been rough and it’s true that he was tired of having to kill to survive.

He reclined in his bed which creaked softly under his weight, head laying on his crossed arms and turned to the side to appreciate the endless night sky. He had the luxury of having a small but clean room with a little window on the right side of his bed, a satisfaction after the cave debacle.

He had wanted to sleep with the window open to fall asleep lulled by the scents of nature – muted by the strong smells of human occupation, but still present – but had given up after a while. He had finally confirmed that he had been sent back in time somewhere around fall, and the cold air from outside was anything but kind to his… hairless constitution.

Before sinking into the dark waters of sleep, he promised himself to buy himself some warm and comfortable clothes with the small allowance given by Hiruzen.

He refused to go as low as catching something so humiliating as _a cold_.

 

Even if that meant wearing those hideous sandals.

 

 

–

 

 

Finally alone after Danzō had reluctantly left his office, Hiruzen allowed himself a tired sigh and massaged his aching temples.

Persuading his old friend to let the newcomers keep their freedom for now had been a hard won battle… that he wasn’t even completely sure he had won.

Obito’s benefactors were… unexpected, to say the least.

The raven hair boy especially, had grabbed Hiruzen’s attention. Oh, don’t get him wrong, the other two were on an other level of unconventional, but there was just… _something_ , about the third.

First his striking appearance…

Now Hiruzen needed to find the time and energy to summon the heads of two very powerful clans, and ask the delicate question that had been in his head ever since that red eyed boy had entered his office…

Had there ever been any hidden _mixing_ happening between the two clans? And maybe any silently getting rid off said mixing by sending them away from Konoha? Influential clans mixing themselves with civilians or smaller clans was already a big enough an outrage, so he couldn’t possibly imagine people’s reaction if they were news of two rival clans’ offspring. Because, after all, clan secrets were not only orally transmitted, but hereditary transmitted, and if one individual happened to have access to both…

He’d have to thread carefully and be faster than the common villager. News traveled fast and the three newcomers arrival hadn’t exactly been discreet.

What made the situation delicate was the second unusual characteristic of the boy… Hiruzen could feel he hadn’t been lying about his similarity to a Jinchūriki, and he himself wasn’t a sensor, but he would have been blindness to miss the enormous quantities of chakra oozing off Kurama, as if he had small to none control over it… Or maybe too much to contain it inside his body.

That was probably what it would feel like to be standing next to a seal-less Jinchūriki, but still able to keep his Tailed Beast in check.

Hiruzen was thoughtful.

The last flames of war may have died down, but embers were still brooding beneath the ashes, and it would be an asset to have someone like _him_ loyal to the village. He had nowhere to go, no food, no clothes, and from what Hiruzen had taken from his story, no relatives anymore.

That he was aware of at least. Maybe if he integrated him inside one of Konoha’s clan…

His train of thoughts was interrupted as he laid eyes on one of many opened missive stacked up on the edges of his desk. The written report was folded down, hiding the neat writing from anyone hovering around his work place – which would have been fruitless anyway since it was written in a code only Hiruzen and a few hand picked Anbus could decipher – but the cloaked man didn’t bother opening it again.

He already knew the content by heart, result of feeling obliged to read through the information again and again until he couldn’t ignore the problematic and urgent issue at hand anymore.

Inside his own village, a village filled to the brim with more than capable ninjas, a grave had been desecrated… and a body had gone missing. A _Uchiha_ body, for Sage’s sake!

Hiruzen wondered if he could just ignore the problem long enough until it resolved itself magically… but he was Hokage, and he had duties. _So many duties_ , he lamented with a sigh.

 

Hiruzen felt old.

Maybe the time had come for him to retire.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My take on Zetsu’s personality: I want to believe that the Statue and Tree slowly affected him years after years of exposure, turning him more deaf to love and compassion, etc. Plus he was very close to Obito, so when the kid went mad he just followed his ideals.  
> Zetsu is very attached to Obito because in a sense, he is the reason why him and Tobi were created and given a sentience.  
> “Fun” fact: At first Tobi was named Guruguru in my descriptions and dialogues because I thought he wouldn’t mind changing his name, but I changed it at the last second because the name is quite long and it feels heavy to read and write every time… tell me what you think about it!
> 
> Hiruzen, stop calling Kurama “boy”, he’s older than your great-grand parents you youngling


	9. Sweet proposition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit shorter but see it as a kind of transition to another part of the story :)
> 
> Please tell me if you see any mistakes :)
> 
> Enjoy!

 

 

The day following Obito’s return at the village, Hiruzen summoned the Uchiha and Inuzuka clan heads at the crack of dawn to discuss the unsure status of a certain black haired man.

Scenting Fugaku’s contained annoyance as soon as he entered the office, Ōkami knew he hadn’t been the only one unhappy to be woken up this early. The Uchiha’s sour mood turned acidic when their leader announced they will have to spend one of their few future days off meeting up with a complete stranger to determinate if the man could pretend to be tied to their bloodlines.

Ōkami passed a hand through his spiky brown hair, where a few stray strands had already began turning white – the war hadn’t been kind to him.

He had promised his daughter Tsume that he would spend more time with her and Hana, and now he would have to break the news that – once again – he would be tending to his duties instead of being home with them. Tsume would be mad, of course. Hana had been born during the war and he had spent a massive part of his time away from Konoha, leading the Inuzuka forces to the front lines, spying, fighting…

He knew he couldn’t turn away from his responsibilities as clan head, but he deeply regretted loosing spent time with his only grandchild for the first years of her life. They grew up so fast at this age, he already missed so many of her first times. At least she hadn’t be given her canine companion yet, that was the one thing he really didn’t want to miss.

Maybe he could manage to meet up with the stranger and still spend some time with his family. It would also be a great test to determine if the man fared well with other Inuzuka clan members and their Ninken…

After all, Hiruzen hadn’t specified they had to meet him alone, nor had he specified where.

He smirked.

 

–

 

A few days later, Kurama had the unpleasant surprise of finding a fully grown, unmoving husky dog on the doorstep of the room he was sleeping in. Everyone passing by in the corridor was giving him odd looks, so he quickly slithered out of his room past the animal and made his way towards the downstairs dining hall.

He wasn’t going to preoccupy himself with a lost dog.

Except it followed him to the hall, then his room again, even the bathroom. Everywhere he went, the dog followed.

Exasperated, Kurama retreated back to his room and sat cross legged on his bed, eyeing the dog down – which of course had managed to slip past him and inside before he could close the door – and pointed an accusing finger at it.

“I know you’re a Ninken, there’s no way a basic dog would act this way. Can you speak?”

A light ‘woof’ and a tilted head was all the answer he got.

“Guess not huh?”

Why was a Ninken following him? If it had been a subtle spying from afar, he would have understood, but this…

“You got a master buddy?”

The animal’s tail wagged, the black parts of his fur almost appearing a dark shade of blue in the golden light of the early morning . _Ok, so not_ _stray or abandoned._

“Think you could show me where that shitty master of yours is hiding? So I can give them a piece of my mind about leaving you alone to follow me around.”

The dog lifted its black snout in the air, seemingly weighting pros and cons, finally deciding itself by jumping on Kurama’s bed and from there leaping through the open window in a same nimble move.

“What the… warn me before doing this kind of shit!” yelled Kurama before chasing down the small black and white dot zigzagging between the houses.

From then on Kurama certified that this was within a doubt a Ninken, and that it was playing with him. Instead of feeling annoyed, he took on the challenge with amusement and went after the fur ball with a light-hearted laugh.

He used to play with his siblings in a similar way when they were still young, and later on, when he was still free of humans’ imprisonment and that they all had gone separate ways, he would do the same with a few sylvan Kistunes. At the time, he would abundantly use his chakra to reduce his size almost down to those of normal foxes to even the game for the Kitsunes and make it challenging for him.

He wondered what had become of them, and if some were still alive after all those centuries. Considering their life expectancy, it wouldn’t be too surprising, but old age was far from being the deadliest to them since humans had multiplied exponentially on their hunting grounds over time.

Distracted by the chase that had turned into a game of catch, he only realized he had trespassed onto the Inuzuka grounds as he ran a hand through the thick fur of the dog he had finally and effectively caught… as he stood on the clan’s head doorstep.

Time to go before getting into trouble.

As he formulated the thought, the door opened on a man in his late forties, that looked strangely like an aged up Kiba, clan markings included.

That had to be the clan head. _Fuck_.

The man laughed as soon as he laid eyes upon Kurama and the husky. “I see Aoi finally caught you. Come in, come in! We have a lot to discuss.”

Kurama was too astonished to care for niceties. “Did the head of the Inuzuka clan really just fetched me with a dog hoping I would follow?”

“Well, it worked didn’t it? And you can call me Ōkami-san, no need for the honorifics.”

The man – Ōkami – was almost the same size and stature as Kurama, barely towering over him by an inch or so, his face marked by crow’s feet wrinkles and a few faded scars framing sharp slit eyes.

As he guided Kurama through the long corridors, Kurama noticed the man had a faint limp, smartly hidden by his posture and pace. Coincidentally – which seemed less and less like a coincidence as the limp made itself obvious – Aoi was flanked on his master’s weaker side, walking at the same pace.

He refocused on his surroundings when they rounded a corner and he looked around, appreciating the oddity of the Inuzuka clan house. Given their influence and numbers, he had expected the dog clan to live in way similar to the Hyūga or the Uchiha, with refinement and finesse.

But each Hyūga and Uchiha individual obviously didn’t come paired up with forty pounds – if not more – of barking fluff, teeth and claws. Everywhere his eyes could pry on, it was spacious rooms with hard and thick walls, separated by heavy wooden doors that hardly let any noise filter in and out once closed.

Wise arrangement for a clan with heightened senses and noisy partners. Kurama almost felt jealous. Every night he had to listen to his many floor-mates argue, fight, cook, have sex, etc… And let’s not talk about the smells…

But here… Kurama discretely scented the air inside the house and came back pleasantly surprised. It smelled like dogs, of course, but it was remarkably faint and covered with other light scents like fresh dirt, pine trees and meadow.

“The trick is to use the right soap to wash the dogs,” commented Ōkami as they entered yet another room, this time opened to an exterior garden and flooded with cushions and pillows. “And also ourselves,” he admitted with a short and good-natured laugh.

“Aoi! Aoi!”

A little girl emerged from behind a kotatsu, mounted on another husky dog, identical as the first one, but this time colored with white and red fur.

“Hana, how many times did I tell you, you’re getting a little too heavy for poor Akai here.” Ōkami bent down to the little girl’s eye level, and gently lifted her up of the panting dog. “He’s not a young pup anymore, honey.”

“Okay… I understand.” She patted the dog’s head in careful movements, her tiny hand almost swallowed by the animal’s thick fur. “I’m sorry Akai, I won’t do it again.”

The dog licked her palm and she giggled, hiding behind her grandfather’s back, who winked discreetly at Kurama before adopting a grave face.

“Can I give you an important mission Hana? Could you go look for your mom and tell her our visitor has arrived?” The girl’s eyes – unusually unslit – widened in awe and she shook her head in the affirmative readying herself to leave in a run, then froze when she met Kurama’s eyes.

“Whoa mister! Why are your eyes so red?” Her surprised look turned to concern. “Is it blood? Does it hurt? Do you... –“

“Hana… "

"Sorry Ojīchan! A kunoichi can never be distracted from her mission!”

The soft pitter-patter of her feet on the floor disappeared as soon as she left the room and turned the corner. Kurama couldn’t hold back a low and impressed whistle.

“That’s some _really good_ noise insulation you got there.”

Ōkami leaded him deeper into the room to a kotatsu. “It has been difficult to abandon the traditional housing style of our ancestors, but it was hard on everyone with so many of us here and so little intimacy. I think we made the right choice.”

Waiting on simple wooden plates on top of the kotatsu were neatly exposed little balls of colors that Kurama identified as sweets. If he remembered well those were dangos on a stick – three colored as usual – and what seemed to be plain white daifukus.

Kurama eyed them discretely, yet intently. Truth is, he was curious about sweets. Ever since he had been implanted in this human body he only ever had the opportunity to eat expired snacks and army food. Now he knew why soldiers were always complaining about their rations during operations that took them out of Konoha for a few days. It was dry and tasteless, but he couldn’t afford buying his own food. Hiruzen’s allowance only permitted to pay for the essentials: his room and his clothing. He would have to find a job to afford the rest.

But he really wanted to taste ‘real’ food for a change…

Kurama’s attention snapped back to his interlocutor when said man cleared his throat.

“You’re a guest in this house Kurama-kun, you can have as many sweets as you’d like. At this rate I’m just afraid the kotatsu is going to get holes with the way you’re glaring at it.

Kurama felt his face heat up, cursing his human body once again, angry with himself that he got baited by the sweets in the first place.

“Why are you treating me like that.”

Ōkami made a face. “I’m sorry, was my humor bad? My daughter always says that I should try to… –

“Why are you treating me like I was an Inuzuka.” His red eyes were burning as bright as a furnace.

“Are you that desperate to replenish your clan’s ranks after the war?” His words were laced with barely retained anger. “If you think playing nice will appease me into getting into your little army –“

“I think you’re misunderstanding something Kurama-kun.” Ōkami’s calm tone helped Kurama cool down enough to let him speak and not scream at his face before storming off.

“It’s true that your Inuzuka ascent is only speculation, and it is also true that Hokage-sama wanted me to meet you, but I invited you here today for other reasons.”

Kurama crossed his arms in a reluctant pose, yet still somewhat interested in hearing what the Inuzuka had to offer.

“Kurama-kun, from what I’ve heard, it appears you possess enhanced sight and smell, as well as hearing, very much like us Inuzukas… “

“What do you want from me?”

“I don’t _want_ anything from you, or at least not anything you’d be unwilling to give. I only have a proposition to offer, the rest is up to you to accept or decline.” Ōkami gave a disarming smile, devoid of whatever malice Kurama was so intent on finding. “I think it would do you good to be around people that are similar to you.”

Kurama wasn’t sure to follow. “There are none like me here.”

“Maybe… but why don’t you give it a try and see for yourself? I think some of us can surprise you.”

Kurama was left speechless when he realized what his interlocutor was offering.

“Wait… are you seriously proposing that I… “

“I’m offering you a place inside the Inuzuka grounds, and maybe one day, the possibility to officially enter the clan. But for the last one, you’d have to convince way more people than just me, so unfortunately we are talking about years, maybe even decades.”

Kurama felt like he would have fallen on his ass if he wasn’t seated already, and let the words escape his mouth without care of the man’s title.

“Do you… do you even realize what the fuck you’re saying?!”

Ōkami held his hands in front of him in a calming gesture. “Don’t worry Kurama-kun, you don’t actually have to accept my offer if you… –

“That’s not the problem here!!” Kurama wondered if Konoha was just filled to the brim with fools, and that Danzō was the only one with common sense and an instinct of preservation.

To be siding with the twisted leader of Root… how the tables had turned.

“I’m a stranger that arrived less than a week ago in Konoha, for all you know you could be hosting a missing-nin, or… or a kidnapper, child murderer, rapist, assassin… –

“Are you?” That knowing smile again.

“N-No! But I could damn well be!”

“You’re very kind Kurama-kun, kinder than I think you allow yourself to think you are.” Ōkami lightly tapped his nose, “I’m happy you’re worrying about me, but I’m not stupid or over trusting, I just happen to have an extra little something that helps me decide if people are worth of my trust or not… “ he pointed a finger at Kurama’s chest, “… and I think you will be worth it.”

Kurama was beginning to feel his face light up again, struggling to get words out, when he was saved by the arrival of a young woman with tacky lipstick, as discreet and caring as a pack of hounds in a porcelain shop, holding the little girl Kurama saw before with one hand, and balancing a tea tray on the other.

“Dad! I brought some tea for you and your… _guest_.” She viewed Kurama with a skeptic eye but still delivered the teapot and two cups to the kotatsu, releasing the little girl who immediately ran to play with the dogs as soon as she was put down.

“That is very kind of you, thank you. Kurama-kun, you already met my grand-daughter Hana, this is my daughter, Tsume.”

They both contented themselves with short and stiff head bows, before Tsume turned her heels and exited to the garden without another word.

Now that Kurama remembered where he’d seen her before, everything made sense. Tsume was Kiba’s mom, and Ōkami was therefore his grandfather. Hence the similar looks the two shared. But Kiba unquestionably took more after his mom regarding his personality traits than his calm grandfather.

Ōkami poured Kurama some tea and slid the plate filled with sweets in his direction.

“So… what do you say about my offer Kurama-kun?”

Said man lifted an eyebrow. “It’s unbelievable that you’re really trying to woo me into your clan with tea and desserts… “

“Well… is it working?”

Kurama kept silent for a while, ultimately stretching out his hand to delicately grab a daifuku between his thumb and index’s claws.

 

“Maybe,” he muffled as he gobbled up the sweet confection.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Valentine's day update: The first rated M extra related to the Serie have been published! Go have a look [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22532431/chapters/54215104) ;p
> 
> With pride and excitement, I present to you my OC: Ōkami! I didn't plan on creating OCs at first, but I really wanted Kurama to interact with the Inuzuka and, well, at the time Tsume surely wasn't the clan head but we don't know who was before her.... so I created one ^^  
> I might drop more information on him if you're interested in the character :D
> 
> Random facts:  
> \- Kurama is a softie for animals and neglected kids, and his next weakness will probably be sweets :p  
> \- I took some liberties about how long lasted the 3rd shinobi world war because Naruto’s timeline is a hot mess on its own anyway
> 
> The meeting between Kurama and Fugaku DID happen, I know exactly how it turned out (I think you can guess it too) but I'm debating if and where to put it in the story... 
> 
> ANNOUNCEMENT:  
> The next time I post a chapter it will probably be an extra chapter (related to the story), but inside another Work inside the serie "Revenge, and a little bit more", so stay tuned for that!  
> I might publish it on Valentin's day since it's a bit "spicy" ;p


	10. Saving you (once again)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's go back in time a little bit: what takes place in this chapter happened 2 days after Obito came back to Konoha with Kurama, between chapter 8 and the main part of chapter 9.
> 
> BTW I published a [valentine's day extra](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22532431/chapters/54215104), here it is in case you want some smut before/after the slight angst of this chapter.

 

On the way to his apartment after spending half a day at the hospital, Obito felt exhausted.

It was only his second medical examination and he was so done with it already. He had no idea how he was going to last the week, then the month, and just hoped he wouldn’t be forced to go anymore after they’d realize that, really, he was doing fine.

Agreed, he was weak and malnourished – he had only been fed chakra and water by Zetsu, and maybe some water, but never food – yet he was valid again and his new arm was holding strong. Maybe the cells that were grafted onto him somehow provided him enough nutrients up until now? He didn’t have the answer.

He had spent his first night back in Konoha in the hospital, getting poked and twisted around until the medical nins had satisfied their thirst for knowledge about his condition to finally let him sleep. Fortunately the next day he had been deemed autonomous enough to get back to his apartment during the evening and night, but he still had to visit the hospital at least once everyday, usually hours at a time. They seemed to love analyzing the _medical mystery_ that he now was.

 _There_ _is_ _something_ _wrong_ _with his_ _right_ _arm_ , they said.

Well of course it was weird! From what he had understood from Madara, it was a graft grown from the same cells as Zetsu, which – no offense to Zetsu – felt… disturbing.

Broken out of his thoughts when he got a glimpse of the darkening sky in the horizon, he picked up the pace, afraid that the weather could get worse before he could reach his apartment.

Yet halfway there, he stopped. He wasn’t far from Kakashi’s favorite training grounds, maybe if he did just a small detour… and was lucky enough…

“ _Sensei, why were you talking about Kakashi when I came back to Konoha?”_

“ _Well, umh, you see… Kakashi has been… badly affected by your death, and he_ _has been_ _seclud_ _ing_ _himself from others ever since we finished the mission. He started avoiding me_ _altogether_ _a few days ago, so I became worried about him and I asked the_ _entrance_ _guards to notify me if they saw him leave the village.“_

That’s what Minato-sensei had said, but maybe if it was him, he could be able to draw Kakashi out!

 _He doesn’t even know I’m alive!_ he thought. Once Kakashi would see that he was fine, surely he’d stop sulking and they could become Minato’s team again.

Feeling a rush of motivation, Obito diverted from his original path and took a turn that he knew would lead him to Kakashi’s training place. Apparently nobody had seen him for days, and now that it was getting dark, Obito believed it only raise his chances of spotting his rival. Kakashi was a training freak, it would be logical to think that being upset would only increase his tendencies.

 

–

 

Disappointed to find the training grounds empty, Obito thought of going back home, but now that he was already out anyway, what was the harm in checking out the next grounds? They weren’t _that_ far away anyway…

 

After having searched almost all of the training grounds, and on his way to the last one Kakashi could possibly be at, Obito promised himself to go back to the warmth of his small apartment as soon as he found it empty – again – and just try once more another time.

A light rainfall had started to pour from the darkened sky, so he turned away to go back home – he will have to search this area another day – when a brief flash of light cut through the trees, accompanied with a sound so distinctive that Obito recognized it immediately, even if he ever had heard it only once before – it was impossible to forget the imposing sound of a thousand birds screeching all at once, grating the ears like nails on chalkboard.

He hadn’t processed the information that already his body was soaring towards the still faintly illuminated spot where the sound had come from. An emotion akin to anticipation bubbled up and rose from deep inside his chest as water rained down his face, plastering his hair to his skull and obscuring his line of vision.

Irritated, he swatted the soaked strands away from his valid eye… and narrowly avoided sprawling himself in a slippery mud puddle. Annoyed by the short delay and afraid his target would somehow disappear in those precious lost seconds, he loudly cursed his own clumsiness, only to have his breath catching in his throat when his gaze fell on a far away silhouette.

On the edge of the training ground, on his knees, his head hung low, was a huddled up Kakashi.

In front of the silver haired boy stood a massive oak tree, almost cut in half and still fuming from a previous blow – or _blows_ , if the holes full of embers and charcoal edges were any indication – and Obito couldn’t help himself from feeling the familiar pang of jealousy and admiration that struck him every time his rival displayed one of his many talents.

The feeling disappeared rapidly when Obito realized that the Kakashi that was half-collapsed at the foot of the tree was far from the cool-faced, calm and collected Kakashi from team Minato.

 _Could_ _my death really affect him that much?_ That had been months ago already!

Obito chewed on his lip nervously. Going up to Kakashi and nagging him about being unkillable had seemed like a smart idea when he had been bored out of his mind in Madara’s hide-out, but now…

The rain was only getting heavier now, rapidly soaking him down to the bone and drowning all of the surrounding noises with the sound of a million droplets hitting the earth simultaneously.

Under the storm’s racket, Obito still distinctly heard a sharp snapping sound coming from Kakashi’s direction, and wondered if the masked boy had stopped moping around to go back to beating his emotions to a pulp against the bark of the tree.

A tremor worse than the chill brought by the drop in temperatures shook his entire body when he realized that Kakashi hadn’t moved, and the ominous cracking originated from the tree itself… breaking down in half directly over his teammate.

Obito stopped breathing as his vision bled to red. He had activated his Sharingan almost instantly, a reflex to the immediate threat to Kakashi. The problem was: his eye was catching every detail and his brain was thinking faster than ever, but his body couldn’t catch up.

The falling half of the tree was seamlessly suspended in mid-air, but Obito perfectly knew that time hadn’t slowed down, his brain was only trying to process the massive amount of information his eye was providing.

It was the same as a few months ago when they had gone to rescue Rin. His eye was moving faster. His thoughts were running faster.

But his body, which had started to run in Kakashi’s direction, felt heavy and sluggish. As droplets of rain fell around him, so slow they seemed suspended in the air, realization downed on him. The giant trunk would easily crush down Kakashi before he would even know what was happening to him. Obito would never get there in time, and his teammate would die in front of his eyes.

Unless…

Out of other viable options, Obito gathered his chakra, praying to Sage that his first Shunshin in what seemed like ages would not result in a complete and utter failure.

He disappeared in a blur and reappeared next to Kakashi with just enough left-over speed and accuracy to grab one of the boy’s leather strap, and propel them to the side as the trunk connected with the ground in a deafening cracking sound.

Covered in mud and small branches, Obito finally drew a shuddering breath he hadn’t even realized he had held in. As his vision slowly returned back to normal, the chakra and physical drain caught up to him. Reduced to his hands and knees, his entire frame shaking with uncontrollable tremors, he risked a glance over to where Kakashi had landed, afraid of what he would discover since he couldn’t hear any sound coming from his teammate.

What he saw was a disheveled Kakashi, mask out of place and covering half his face, just as soaked and muddy as Obito and staring at him with his right eye wide open, seemingly frozen in place.

“O-Obito?” His voice seemed so unsure and ready to break at any moment that it gave a pang to Obito’s chest. “Is it really you?” Kakashi had regained some of his mobility and was now gripping tightly the front of Obito’s shirt, with such force that his knuckles were already turning white, as if the Uchiha would disappear if he let go of him.

Kakashi’s uncovered eye was a mix of happiness and disbelief, slowly filling with tears. Embarrassed to be the reason for Kakashi’s rare emotional outburst, Obito broke eye contact and focused on a close-by patch of grass – wow his vision was really getting blurrier by the second – that had miraculously escaped the whole ordeal.

“Yeah, yeah Bakashi it’s really me. I thought I had to come back because it seems like I’m the only one able to save your sorry ass – Oof!”

Air was knocked out of his chest when Kakashi dragged him by his shirt and crushed him in an awkward half-hug. Obito was about to make fun of him, when he heard quiet sobs against his shoulder.

 _Wait… What? Kakashi was… crying?_ And on his shoulder on top of that…

After wondering what to do for a few endless seconds, he settled on quietly patting his friend’s back in what he hoped was a reassuring gesture.

It was still a strange feeling to be the cause of such strong emotions for the ever stoic Kakashi. He hadn’t had time to think about it too much the first time it had happened – it felt like being crushed under that boulder had been a lifetime away already – but now, the intensity of it hit him at full force.

The position was uncomfortable, he was wet and cold, his body was aching and his entire right side was screaming in pain, but since Kakashi was now the only thing keeping him upright, he decided it would be better if he kept at it until his vision cleared a little.

Surrounded by darkness, only the sound of Kakashi’s cries and the subsiding rain falling softly around them disturbing the silence, Obito realized how late it must have been.

He looked down at ashen hair and gently tugged at a shoulder, shaking Kakashi out of his dazed state. “Hey, I think we should head back, it’s late and getting really cold now.”

“Yeah… yeah okay.” Kakashi’s tone was already a little more steady already. “Can you get up?”

“Uhm not sure, let me try.” He bravely tried to stand up without Kakashi’s support… and immediately plopped back down.

He looked up at Kakashi only to realize his friend had already plopped back down in front of him, turning away from him. Obito frowned. “I am _not_ letting you giving me a pity back ride after _I_ was the one who just saved your life.”

“Obito, both your legs gave out, if I have to support your weight the whole way to your place it might as well be on my back.”

“Did you just call me fat?”

Kakashi didn’t even bother with an answer, he just threw him a deadpan look over his shoulder and released a long heartfelt sigh. The majority of his face covered by the mask, Obito could still perfectly see how Kakashi was judging him and his antics. He hated and envied the lightning speed at which Kakashi could recompose himself, because he, on the other hand, was like an open book for everyone to read.

“Okay fine! Just… make sure nobody sees us”, he added more quietly.

“Hai hai.”

 

It was only when Obito was hanging on to Kakashi’s shoulders while they jumped from one roof to another that he noticed the tremors hadn’t left the other boy's body.

 

When they finally arrived at Obito’s apartment, the first thing he did after removing his wet shoes at the entrance – with Kakashi’s help, what a shame – was to strip down of his soaked layer of clothes – again, with Kakashi’s help, epitome of shame – and lock himself inside the bathroom.

“You sure you can handle bathing alone in your state?” came the muffled voice of Kakashi from the other side of the door.

“Yes Bakashi! I’m not a cripple!” He then realized Kakashi was probably as soaked as him, and most likely dripping water all over his apartment floor.

“There’s some spare cloths in the little cabinet next to my desk!” he yelled, adjusting the temperature of the water. “You better change and not transform my living room into a puddle!”

He still struggled to scrub himself up, but at least he was warm and mostly clean, and honestly, he was way too tired to care to do more than that. However, he still found the energy to put pajama pants on when he realized Kakashi hadn’t left and was waiting for him right outside the door. _What was he, a dog waiting for his owner?_ he thought with a snort as he exited the room.

Refusing Kakashi’s help, he limped the few steps that separated the bathroom door from his futon, and plopped down on it with a sigh of satisfaction.

“I’ve put my wet clothes in the entrance, and I wiped the water off your floor with a rag I found in the kitchen.”

Surprised by his formal tone, Obito looked at Kakashi with attention. It was a strange thing to witness, Kakashi, floating a little in his spare civilian clothes, standing awkwardly stiff in the middle of his room.

Taking in Kakashi’s expression, he then realized something. “Wait, why are you still covering your left eye? I didn’t even realize, I just thought your headband had slipped” Doubt suddenly gripped him. “Did the transplant fail? Wasn’t Rin able to heal you?”

“Rin healed it just fine, it’s just…” – he scratched his head – “I’m not able to deactivate your Sharingan, so I have to cover it or it’ll eat through my chakra reserves really fast. You must feel pretty disappointed… “

“What? Why?” What did Kakashi mean, he was supposed to be disappointed about the fact that the other boy was hiding his Sharingan?

“Well… everyone says I’m a genius and all, but I haven’t been able to control the eye you gave me, and now that you’re back I just can’t help thinking that I don’t deserve it, and… and maybe you shouldn’t have given it to me, I’m not worthy of it, and now I still have two eyes while you lost one!” Without seemingly realizing it, Kakashi had gradually raised his voice, nearly yelling towards the end of his rant.

Finally coming to his senses and registering that Obito was staring at him in astonished silence, he quietly plopped down on the floor next to the futon, reaching for his headband as if he wanted to push it down and hide the rest of his face.

They stayed immobile in silence for a while until Obito asked tentatively.

“Can I see it?”

“The Sharingan?”

“No, your chin. Duh, your eye Bakashi.” He couldn’t stop a smile creeping up on his face. He hadn’t realized how much he had missed his fights with Kakashi and how much space it had taken part of in his life. Now it felt… normal again. He really was back home, wasn’t he?

When Kakashi slowly exposed his left side, Obito’s vision immediately bled to red. His surprise was reflected in Kakashi’s expression.

“Obito… did you… ?“

“I didn’t do anything! My Sharingan activated as soon as I saw yours. Well, I mean mine. This is confusing, let’s say it’s yours from now on” – he halted Kakashi right away when the other opened his mouth to protest – “…since I have no intention on getting it back whatever you say.”

Kakashi closed his mouth with a click, and nodded weakly.

“That way, one Sharingan each, we’ll be even stronger to protect Rin! We’ll be unstoppabaaAAAaah” Obito’s fired up speech was interrupted with a wide yawn, the force of it making his eye water.

“You should go to bed, you look exhausted.”

“Yeah yeah, and you sound like a mother hen,” he begrudged, while getting under the covers. “By the way, I didn’t drain the water so you can still use the bath, I’m pretty sure the water’s still hot.”

“No, I will go home.”

“Shut up and go bath Bakashi, I can hear your teeth rattling from here. You can go home after warming up.” He rolled himself in the covers and turned his face to the wall, his voice coming muffled by the many layers. “You can give me back the clothes another time, just empty the bath and shut the lights off when you leave.” And with that, he closed his eye and became quiet.

Waiting for more instructions, Kakashi waited for a while, but when it became clear that Obito had effectively gone to sleep, he slowly got up and walked to the bathroom.

 

–

 

Dwelling on his thoughts, Kakashi only realized he had been staying in the bath for too long when the water around him had started to turn cold. Chastising himself – he was in the bath to warm up, after all – he made quick work of drying himself up and putting Obito’s clothes back on again while the water drained.

He hadn’t missed the look in Obito’s eye when he had put them on, surely making fun of him for not fitting them, but it only saddened Kakashi to know that Obito didn’t fit them either anymore. He almost didn’t recognize his teammate at first. He had lost so much weight! The right side of his face was deeply and irrevocably scarred, probably from when…

Kakashi didn’t want to think about it any further.

He didn’t want to be reminded of the fact that he was the reason for his friend being left for dead in the first place.

He would have to ask Obito how he managed to survive… but he wasn’t sure he was ready to hear about it just yet. Guilt was already eating him alive, better wait at least until the wound had stopped to bleed before pouring salt on it.

Forcing himself to put an end to his depressing thoughts, he realized he had automatically walked up to Obito’s futon, and was towering over it, staring at the boy’s sleeping face, as to make sure he was still alive and breathing.

 _Ah, creepy_ , thought Kakashi with a dry laugh. He was ridiculous, of course Obito wasn’t going to just disappear.

Yet, he didn’t move an inch away from where he had posted himself.

_He almost died because of me. He’s missing an eye because of me._

Kakashi clenched his fist. _I can’t even use it properly._ He thought back about what had happened right before Obito had saved him from the falling tree, the flashes and the pain in his left eye, as if someone else’s vision had overlapped onto his. _Is my body slowly starting to reject Obito’s eye? I don’t have Uchiha genes after all…_

Shaken out of his thoughts when Obito moved around and mumbled in his sleep, he decided it was time for him to leave. He turned off the lights, collected his wet clothes, and with one last look at the sleeping form on the futon, he closed the door and walked away.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I said Obito's POV was hard to write but I actually had a lot of fun writing this one :D (took me so long to finish though...)
> 
> Trivia:  
> \- Kakashi is a sad anxious bean  
> \- Kakashi is a small bean too. He’s supposed to be younger than Obito and Rin, so I have the headcanon that he’s way skinnier than Obito. Plus at that time he’s still living alone in the house where his father killed himself so… I don’t think he’s correctly taking care of himself and eating 3x a day. (Yes Yume, let’s add even more angst to this chapter, that's exactly what it needs… haha I will stop now)
> 
> ANNOUNCEMENT  
> I have finally started to draw fanart of my fic (Kurama is too fabulous and begged to be drawn)  
> My Tumblr account also has older art not related to the fic, in case you're interested (I might post it one day on Twitter though)


	11. The contract, or getting baited with sweets (once again)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kurama can't run away from Inuzuka responsabilities

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might post the next chapter sooner than usual because it goes hand in hand with this one and I'm really proud of how it turned out :p

 

Life at the Inuzuka clan was tolerable.

He was kept warm with a whole set of new clothes, fed with home-made meals, and kept clean thanks to the clan’s personal onsen. He also had a private room where he could sleep, have his meals, and isolate himself if the proximity of others began to grate on his nerves.

Many times already, in the privacy of his bedroom, he had tried to contact his siblings through the shared mind space, only to find it unnervingly empty every single time. He had called for them relentlessly, but the silence had been his only answer.

He had also tried to organize his shambled memories, but that too had resulted in failure. He couldn’t remember what had happened to him that could explain this unintended time-jump. Hell, he wasn’t even sure anymore which of his flashbacks were the most recent ones.

What helped him not go completely crazy over his current situation and amnesia was the fact that life at the Inuzuka clan was also extremely busy.

He was woken up at dawn every single morning and taken to the training grounds to learn the ninja basics all over again. It helped him stay away from his darkest thoughts, being the source of frustration that it was… he already knew all of those basics!

Well… in theory.

It appeared his chakra control was fluctuating and hard to keep in check, but good enough to execute a good number of Jutsu. He could produce a henge – admittedly executed flawlessly, but still… a _henge –_ and also create a few clones, but that didn’t even count, that was the most _elementary_ thing a ninja could do.

Complex techniques that also required a great deal of chakra weren’t an issue either – he knew he could use Sage chakra and create a Bijūdama just fine – and he could even use basic Katon techniques.

On the other hand, even though he had proven to be quite good at hand to hand combat, he sucked at anything aim-related. Every kunai or shuriken he threw miserably missed their target by an enormous margin, making him golden laughing stock material for the other trainees.

_Great._

But he was finally beginning to suspect the source of the problem. He just wasn’t in phase with his human body.

It was both practical yet very frustrating. On one hand he didn’t have to _pretend_ to learn what Ōkami and the others were teaching him during the ‘Ninja 101’ lessons, but on the other… it was like being back to watching Naruto slowly crawl up the ladders of body and chakra control once more.

“Do it again. You have to be able to keep your chakra sealed at all times, even when asleep. Otherwise you would only be a beacon of chakra for the enemy sensors.” The Inuzuka clapped his hands. “Come on we don’t have all day, get going!”

Kurama growled under his breath but complied without bothering with an answer. He needed to be as sharp and in control of his body as soon as possible, receiving orders in the meantime was a small price to pay.

But that didn’t mean he would forget the names of the ones who had been rude to him.

After all, he used to kill people for much less not so long ago. And old habits died hard, unlike ninjas.

 

–

 

“Spare with me!”

“No.”

“Come on!! I’m begging you!!”

“No. Go away.”

“Obito, why would you even want to train with that guy, have you even _seen_ his lousy target practice? I can spare with you way better than this loser here.”

“But every time we spare you always evade me or fight _weirdly_ , Zetsu! I have to get used to fight humans, otherwise I will get bad habits. Plus your throwing isn’t much better, I don’t think you can criticize…”

“Yeah, don’t criticize, plant man, you were made to hide, not to fight. Go bury yourself and grow some flowers.”

Everyday the same ‘accidental’ encounter with Obito and Zetsu – what was he? The boy’s shadow? – when Kurama came back from the Inuzuka training, and every time the same banter. Kurama was tired of this harassment. He was sweaty and cold and dreaming of a relaxing steamy hot bath.

“Why don’t you train with Ka… – with your teammates?” He asked, catching himself at the last second.

Obito pouted. “One is busy with her medical training, the other suddenly seems afraid to hurt me every time we spare now, and Minato-sensei is on a mission. Zetsu tries to help but he sucks at it-ow! don’t hit me it’s the truth! And Guruguru says he’s too busy ‘learning about human culture’. Which means you are my last chance, Kurama! Nobody else wants to train with me!”

“Obito for the _last time_ , I will not – “

“How about an exchange?!”

Kurama huffed. “What possibly could a broke ass like you have to offer?”

Zetsu glared daggers at him but Obito didn’t seem discouraged in the least. “I know from an unknown but still very viable source that you really like desserts.”

Coincidentally Zetsu avoided his eyes when he turned his gaze back to him. _Fucking spy_.

“I already get as much as I want at the clan, but nice try kid.“ He meant to leave but the young Uchiha planted both his hands on his chest and braced his feet on the ground to stop his advance.

“Wait-wait-wait!!! Just… just hear me out for a sec, okay? So, I know this granny, super nice even if she’s as deaf as a pot, I think she sees me as the wonderful grandchild she never had–Kurama wait don’t leave I-will-make-it-short-pleasepleaseplease!”

The boy sighed with relief when Kurama effectively stopped, counting in his head and promising to himself he’d leave once he reached 15 seconds.

“Okay, so, to make it short that granny is the _BEST_ sweets maker in all of Konoha! Maybe even Fire Country! She had a shop when she was younger and now she just makes them as a hobby and gives them around to the few people of the village that bother visiting her. You would _never_ dream of having sweets as good as hers even if you had Konoha’s best pastry cooks at your service.”

Kurama stopped counting and slowly squinted his eyes at Obito. He would NOT fall for this trick a second time.

…

“What are her specialties?”

Obito beamed at him. “Well she does that really yummy matcha roll cake, and she makes all her mochis and daifukus from scratch – reaaaally good – and she also cooks regular chocolate or sponge cakes sometimes, personally I prefer the – “

“I want to taste the goods first.”

A singular black eye blinked at him, then Obito jumped in place excitedly, pointing a triumphant finger at Zetsu. “See! I told you he would say yes!”

“Hey! I didn’t accept yet, bring me what she makes, and _only then_ will I decide if they are worth freezing my ass sparring with a weakling like you when I could be sleeping or relaxing.”

“I can’t believe you actually said yes, that’s pathetic.”

“Shut your trap, moss head, or I will make compost out of you!”

“Yes!!!” Obito threw his fists in the air and began jumping around with glee.

Zetsu watched Kurama with skepticism. “Are you seriously going to train him?”

“Well actually, I think it’s actually a good deal. I get to eat delicious sweets AND practice my aim at the same time.” He punctuated his words with a satisfied grin.

Zetsu slowly turned his head to him. “Don’t you _dare_.”

“Relax, all that stress must be awful for the grass on your head–” he turned around and began walking away from the training ground, nonchalantly waving his hand “–you’ll get bald in no time.”

Kurama sensed more than he saw the crude gestures addressed to him behind his back. He felt quite proud of himself. Seems like he was the only one able to make the artificial human blow a fuse.

Satisfied of how the evening had turned out, he made his way back to the compounds as the sun disappeared behind the tree line, hoping the baths were still empty.

 

–

 

Rested and warm, the only thing missing to Kurama’s clean up before _finally_ going to sleep would be a hot and consistent meal in his belly… which is why Ōkami ambushed him in the common dining room, an innocent smile on his lips.

 _Oh hell no_ , he was not having that conversation right now. Or not ever if possible.

As he meant to swiftly leave the room before the clan head could see him, he felt a hand on his shoulder gripping him ever so lightly, keeping him from running away.

“Kurama-kun, what a coincidence, I was just looking for you. Follow me so we can chat somewhere more private.”

Resigned to his fate, Kurama followed behind the man, dragging his feet unhappily on the hardened wooden floors.

 

Once alone in Ōkami’s study and seated cross legged on opposite ends of a low table, the Inuzuka delicately laid down a small black and red scroll on top of it, and pushed it towards Kurama.

“You’ve been running away from me ever since I mentioned the fact that you should get a Ninken, so I will just assume you know what this is.”

Confusion was painted on Kurama’s face. “I don’t… I mean I know what this is, it’s an invocation scroll, but I don’t understand… don’t all Inuzuka get regular Ninken instead of a summon?”

Ōkami chuckled. “You really think I would assign you a dog to follow your every moves and depend on you as much as you depend on it when you bailed on me as soon as I spoke about the subject? You weren’t born and raised in this clan, I don’t expect you to burden yourself with a pup you have no idea how to raise.”

“But I’m still not off the hook yet, am I?” sighed Kurama, taking the scroll in hand.

“I am offering you a compromise. We _are_ a clan depending on Ninken, it’s an unspoken rule that you need one of them as your companion.”

“Or _three_ of them?” he slyly pointed out. He hadn’t forgotten how Hana, with all of five years old, had managed to convince her grandfather to adopt triplets Ninken a few days ago.

Ōkami cleared his throat with embarrassment and reached for the scroll, unfolding it flat on the table. “We are not going to talk about that, Tsume scolded me enough already.”

Kurama chuckled but complied, focusing his attention on the different messy names and bloody finger prints. He frowned when he realized how few were written down. Ōkami's one wasn’t even on it!

“Wait, it’s not the clan’s contract?”

“It is.”

“Why is it so… empty?”

Ōkami’s face adopted a thoughtful expression. “I guess it is not really in our traditions to use summons, we generally reserve it for members that tragically lost they partners and don’t want to go through the emotional burden of raising a new one, but still have to go on missions. And in your case it would allow you to get used to the companionship little by little.”

Kurama eyed the previous blood contracts, then Ōkami again. “You really think it’s okay for me to be in there? I don’t even have an official family name to mark down.”

“Don’t worry, putting the name down is more a technicality than anything. It’s your blood and chakra that seal the pact.” He looked Kurama dead in the eyes, and asked with a serious tone, “So, what do you say?”

Kurama closed his eyes, leaned backwards and actually thought about it.

He could say no, Ōkami was nice and understanding enough to not force it on him. But he kind of felt amendable to the man, and it was true that having a Ninken seemed like a requirement to be part of the Inuzuka clan. Plus it would be a summoned Ninken, he could end the invocation anytime he wanted to if needed.

He opened his eyes. “I’ll do it.”

Before he could come back on his own decision, he used the claws of his left hand to pierce the skin of his other hand’s index, and swiftly wrote his name with the fresh blood before the wound could heal. Once done, he smeared the leftover blood all over his fingertips and applied them on the paper, leaving five neat oval marks.

“What now?”

 

“The signs go like this: Horse-Dog-Boar-Tiger-Dragon.”

Kurama thanked him and executed the five hand signs flawlessly, then slammed his chakra-infused palm to the ground, wondering what kind of Ninken he would get a contract with.

When nothing happened even after a few seconds had passed, Kurama began to wonder if there was a problem with the contract or the signs he executed. He turned to Ōkami.

“Why isn’t it work– ”

 

He disappeared in a puff of smoke.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Kurama keeps getting lured into doing things he doesn’t want to do because of the irresistible pull of desserts (I don’t blame him)  
> \- That chapter made me so hungry for japanese desserts so I actually went and bought a few ^^”  
> \- I changed back the format! Now there is less spaces between paragraphs, what do you think about it? Do you prefer it now or the way it was before?  
> -We reached 300 kudos! Thank you so much everybody!


	12. The flower and the mountain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kurama meets an old acquaintance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody, I hope all of you and your families are healthy and unaffected by the damn virus going around…  
> My own country is in quarantine but it didn’t help me one bit with advancing my fic more than usual, since I work at the hospital 5 days/week like usual… At least neither I nor my family have caught it yet, so there’s that I guess.
> 
> Back to the story! Where did Kurama go? :p  
> I had a blast writing this chapter, hope you'll like it! ^^

 

 

Confused, Kurama appeared in a small shaded clearing, surrounded by green grass and flowering trees. A soft breeze was gently shaking the leaves, carrying the heavy fragrance of thousand of flowers blooming at once, and Kurama noted with stupor it was way too warm for him to be still in Konoha. Or even the Fire Country.

He inhaled deeply, he was amazed by the complete absence of human trace in the air, apart from his own.

Where was he? Did he end up in a summoning domain somehow? Could it be a reverse summoning technique… no that one needed a summon to activate it, it must have been something else.

He felt watched but was unable to pinpoint where exactly it originated from, so he stepped out of the clearing and penetrated the shade of the trees. It didn’t ease the weight of eyes on his back, but at least now he could pretend he was better hidden from them.

Going deeper under the trees’ coverage, he came face to face with a massive rock wall, stopping dead his advance. He tried to assess how far the cliff was going on either sides, and startled when he looked right.

Comfortably sited on the boulders of a rock-slide stood an enormous seven-tailed fox, golden eyes fixed intensely on him. Kurama blinked a couple times but the sand colored fox was still here. How was he still not able to detect anything coming from it?

“My, my, I thought I had recognized your chakra, but I didn’t think it would really be you, Kyūbi-sama. I made the right choice bringing you here.” The tone of the voice hinted the individual was female, but it wasn’t one that Kurama recognized. When was the last time he had interacted with a kitsune…?

Suddenly, his eyes lit up as he made the link.

“Inari…?”

The fox let out a crystalline laugh, her many tails shaking with excitement. “It seems like the both of us went through many changes since the last time we met, I am so delighted you remember me! It’s an honor!”

Kurama mirrored her laugh. “You don’t say! The last time we played chase you didn’t have that many tails, and you were much smaller!”

“And _you_ were a tad bigger, if I remember correctly,” she retorted playfully, putting her tongue out.

“Well, I didn’t really plan for that. An unexpected setback, let’s say…”

“Ooh, please do tell,” she jumped from the boulder she had been laying on, and landed surprisingly gracefully for someone her size right next to Kurama, “I would love to hear about what happened to you since the last time we met.”

A bitter-sweet feeling enveloped Kurama. “This might take a while,” he warned as he sat himself facing Inari’s lowered head.

“Time doesn’t flow the same here as for the humans’ realm, we have all the time in the world!”

A nostalgic smile grew on Kurama’s face. It seemed like the centuries didn’t tamper the vixen’s child-like curiosity and energy in the least.

“Well then, let’s begin…”

  
  


–

  
  


Kurama didn’t know how long he had been talking about his life as a Bijū, as well as listening to Inari’s adventures, but it had both felt really short and really long at the same time. Either he didn’t feel the passing of time, or the sun never set in this place. Yet, he didn’t feel tired in the slightest…

“I can’t believe a small and irresponsible kit like you ended up with seven tails and in charge of the summoning domain of the foxes. I think it means there’s hope for anybody out there”, he teased, unable to completely retain admiration from bleeding in his expression.

“But I’m not as wild as I used to be.” She rested her hand on her front legs and closed her eyes. “I grew up, settled down, and ever since the previous elder passed away, I have been the one on which my people depend.”

Immersed in the relative silence of the woods, Kurama became pensive.

“Inari…”

“Yes, Kyūbi-sama?”

“How did I end up in the fox domain if I signed a blood contract belonging to the Inuzuka family? It wasn’t specified on the scroll, but I thought they were linked to the dog domain by default. You wouldn’t have been able to use a reverse summoning technique on me if the contract hadn’t been linked to you in the first place.”

“Well… let’s say I used a loophole in the contract.” She said with a wry smile. “The Inuzuka clan head that first created the contract had only a vague idea on how to do it properly, and he accidentally made it more powerful without even realizing it. He wanted to start contracts with dog summons, and ended up including all the domains related to the canine family.

She sighed. “Fortunately for me they have very few clan members with a contract, and even fewer with an active use of it. Each time that happens all the concerned domains domains have to consciously ignore the request and pass it down to the dog one. This is rather annoying.”

“So I guess this time, when you felt my chakra, you refused to pass down the summoning priority and took it for yourself?

“Exactly! You are the first summoner to enter my domain ever since I became responsible of it, Kyūbi-sama. I don’t want to get involved with humans, but I will make an exception for you, since we both know it’s only your envelope.” She winked.

“Yeah… I’d rather not have the humans know that a second Kyūbi is strolling around in a stolen body.”

“That does sound quite bothersome. Anyway–” she shook her fur and scratched a spot behind her ear “–what kind of summon would you like to have? It would be preferable to know before you invoke your first one, so we can try to fit your tastes to the best of our possibility.”

Kurama didn’t plan on getting a fox summon – that would only make him more suspicious if people were to investigate his link to the Bijūs – but now that he was here… he didn’t want to offend Inari by refusing her kind proposal. And it could prove to be a useful asset.

“The discreet type would be the best, ideally one of small size that could pull the same kind of trick as you did when I arrived.”

“The presence concealment I did? Don’t worry! Most of the foxes here can do it just fine, but one of them particularly excels at it, even given her young age.”

Raising her snout in the air, Inari produced a short and high-pitched howl, and a small fox instantly materialized itself in front of Kurama, who couldn’t retain himself from twitching at the sudden manifestation.

“Quite good, right? Kyūbi-sama, I present to you Kuzu.” Said fox did a short bow of her head, without taking her eyes of Kurama. “She is quite the reserved type but she is the most talented at casting illusions of all sorts.”

Still as a statue, the vixen sitting in front of Kurama was the same size as a regular fox – if not slightly smaller – but already possessed a second tail, proof that she was no longer a kit, yet still fairly young. Her coat was a nice shade of mate black – surprising for a fox – save for the very tips of her tails, which were white.

But the most fascinating thing about this small vixen was indubitably her eyes. Big blue eyes, astonishingly pale – almost gray, he noted – reminiscing of the translucent ice covering the mountain's lakes in the dead of winter.

Since her fur was only faintly reverberating the sun’s light, it almost felt like Kurama was looking at a ball of darkness, with two eyes planted in the middle of it. He couldn’t retain a chuckle from escaping him.

“She’s perfect, I’m taking the contract”. He knelt in front of the vixen. “Pleasure meeting you, I hope we’ll get along, Kuzu.”

She blinked once and her stoic expression seemed to relax a little bit. “Likewise, Kyūbi-sama.”

He winced. “Aaah about that, please don’t call me Kyūbi when we’re in front of humans, they don’t know who I really am.”

The vixen seemed confused. “But how… how should I address you then?”

“Just call me Kurama, it’s my real name anyway.”

Inari muffled a squeal, delighted to hear his name, while Kuzu put on an offended face. “I can’t possibly address you so familiarly, Kyūbi-sama! It would be disrespectful!”

Amused by the foxes’ antics, Kurama still managed to keep a serious face on. “I’m sorry, but it’s either that or I find another summon who isn’t bothered by calling me by my name, sorry Kuzu.”

Her eyes widened, and she looked down, moving a twig around with her paw. After a few seconds passed in silence where Kurama and Inari briefly looked at each other, the black vixen’s head suddenly rose, determination burning in her eyes like fire dancing in water.

“Then I will try my hardest, Ky… Kurama-sama!”

“Well then, now that all is good and settled, I will send you back to Konoha, Kyūbi-sama,” declared Inari as she rose from the ground.

Panicked that she would send him back immediately, Kurama hurriedly rose from the ground as well, waving his arms at the giant fox’s face to catch her attention.

“Wait-wait-wait I can’t go back like that to Konoha!” Facing Inari’s puzzled expression, he cleared his throat and chose his words carefully as to not offend her. “I am extremely grateful that you granted me a fox summon, but I intended to blend in with the Inuzuka clan as much as possible for the time being, so I would be profoundly thankful if you could send me directly to the dog’s domain, to get a contract with one of them as well.”

For being a fox himself and knowing how sly they could be at times, he was wary of Inari’s reaction. And depending on her decision, he would need to have some explanations prepared for Ōkami if he came back with a summon the clan head probably didn’t even know he could have…

Which is why he didn’t know how to interpret her cheerful smile and the wink she threw at him, as well as her playful tone.

“Don’t worry Kyūbi-sama, I have the perfect solution for you! Pass my greetings to the head of the domain.”

Before Kurama could protest, he disappeared – again, in a puff of smoke… that was getting old – and reappeared in a thick forest of conifer trees dusted in a thin layer of snow. Unlike in Inari’s domain, a strong icy wind was blowing, sneaking his way between every opening in Kurama’s clothes, icing him to the bone.

It appeared as if the winter forest was completely devoid of any sign of life, but Kurama refused to fall for the same trick as before. If he had been indeed transported to the dogs’ domain, a few of them were surely watching him closely, their presence hidden.

His bare feet already starting to freeze, he took one last look around him and decided on a direction at random. It’s not like he could find a landmark in this monotone landscape anyway, so the least he could do was remain in motion.

He silently cursed Inari and her antics. Couldn’t she have dropped him closer to the heart of the domain? Getting a Ninken was starting to look more and more like an expedition at this point.

“Follow me Ky-…Kurama-sama, I will show you the way.”

Kurama did a side-step in surprise, eyeing the vixen at his feet with puzzlement.

“How long have you been here with me?”

“I was transported with you…–” she paused, “– Kurama-sama.”

Taken aback, he could only stare at her. He was confident there hadn’t been anything nor anybody near him when he had arrived. Especially not a very striking black spot against the white of the frost covering the ground.

“I see Inari didn’t lie about your abilities, you’re really good!”

“We… we should get moving. Please follow me.” And with that she turned her back and took off toward a seemingly random direction. Kurama knew he wasn’t the best at analyzing people’s character, but he guessed he must have embarrassed the vixen with his compliment. He took note and picked up his pace as to not loose her in the frozen forest.

  
  


Following Kuzu, they had started going up a slope, that had slowly turned steeper and steeper. Heaving, he was about to use his arms to help his advance when they finally reached a flat platform embedded in the mountain’s side.

Opening up towards the unobstructed view of the forest from a deserted terrace stood a rather small opening in the rock. Hurrying up to catch Kuzu who had gone up ahead, he realized the absence of landmark to lay his eyes on had fooled his sense of perspective and the cave was actually way bigger than what it had seemed at first glance.

When the both of them finally reached the entrance – unlike at the foxes’ temple – he could make out a few four-legged silhouettes hidden in the dark. Either they didn’t know how to conceal their presence, or they didn’t care about being seen by him.

Kuzu, not in the least intimated by the thousand eyes watching them as they made their way inside, trotted to the end of the cavern, the white tips of her tails jumping around with every step contrasting sharply with the darkness of the place.

The temperatures were slightly warmer than what they had been outside, but the rocky ground was still frigid against Kurama’s fragile human feet. He barely retained a shudder from shaking his entire frame.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t one of Inari’s cute little fox? It’s been a while since I’ve seen your kind around here.” The deep rumbling voice belonged to a gigantic gray wolf – so much for the dog domain then… – probably even bigger than Inari, slouched on the ground at the end of the cave.

“To what do I owe the honor of your visit, tiny one?” He laid his sharpened gaze on Kurama, and his tone became suspicious. “I hope you’re aware what you brought with you isn’t human, little one, or I would be _very_ disappointed in you. I may be old but I can still recognize the malicious chakra of a Bijū just fine. An unsealed one at that!”

Kuzu, undisturbed by the threatening tone, bowed her head to the master of the domain and addressed him in a polite yet unimpressed voice.

“Kyūbi-sama took the decision to live among humans and wishes to possess a summon appropriate to the clan that adopted him. They don’t know of his identity and we would be grateful to you for your discretion on the matter.”

After a moment of utter silence, the old wolf abruptly exploded in a booming laughter, the raw power of it shaking the ground around them and making Kurama’s ears ring.

“You’re quite cheeky for such a small creature,” he spat, making as to get up. “I’ll send you back to your dear forest, see if you’ll behave.”

A look of panic crossed Kuzu’s features. “Wait! Kyodaina-sama, I –”

Kurama stepped in front of the vixen, cutting her off. Putting on a neutral face, he looked the wolf in the eyes.

“I apologize if my presence in your domain inconveniences you, but I can’t change what I am nor what I need. You are the master of this place and I will respect your authority…”

The beast had begun to frown, but wasn’t stopping him, so Kurama continued. “The _only_ thing I would ask of you though, would be to allow me to be transferred to the dogs’ domain since it appears I don’t belong here.” He kept holding the gray wolf’s gaze, making his intention clear. “I won’t go back to the village without a Ninken.”

Feet firmly planted on the ground, his posture as unmovable as the rock around them, he was ready to wait around as long as possible if it could get him to… – wait, was the wolf _snickering_ at him?

Kurama felt a vein pulse on his temple. It was mildly infuriating to not be taken seriously, but he remained immobile. He wasn’t going to give the mutt any reason to refuse him any more than necessary.

“Well, seems like getting stuck in a human body didn’t make you any less untitled.” He tilted his head to the side, faking pensiveness. “But you’re in luck, I’m feeling benevolent today. I will give you what you want, at the condition that you give me something in exchange.”

Kurama braced himself. There was no telling what he would be asked to give, and depending on what it was, he would have to prepare himself to eventually go back to Konoha with only a fox as a summon. If the damned wolf allowed them to leave, that is.

The gigantic beast lowered his head on top of his crossed front legs, his nose only a few feet away from Kurama’s face, his rancid breath blowing Kurama’s hair every time he exhaled.

“And what do you want?” He asked, fighting his gag reflex and cursing his interlocutor’s lack of buccal hygiene.

A wolfish grin tore his interlocutor’s face. “I want you to beg for it. I always wanted to have one of you arrogant Bijūs at my mercy.”

Kurama froze, processing the information. Then wondered if destroying the domain with a few Bijūdamas was worth going back to Konoha without a Ninken. It was oh so very tempting, but he had made up his mind before coming, he wasn’t going to give up now.

But that didn’t mean he had to like it.

Shooting daggers with his glare, hoping to channel his rage and complete disgust, he retorted in a mocking tone. “Oh merciful Kyodaina-sama, would you _please_ transfer me to the dogs’ domain so I could finally get a contract, I beg you, pretty please.” There, he did it. Hopefully that would satisfy the stinky creature.

“Ha! So condescending, but I guess a deal is a deal.” He tiled his head up and barked, “Yama! Come here and meet your new summoner!”

A choked offended sound reverberating against the walls of the cave was met with Kurama’s own surprised gasp. “ _What?? That was not what he_ –”

Walking at a rather reluctant pace, a gray wolf emerged from the other side of the cavern, nails clipping on the rock as he came closer.

All the while, Kurama reflected idly on the fact that a pure wolf didn’t look that different from a few dogs’ breed he had seen in the clan. He felt relieved. That could actually work.

Once the animal had arrived close enough for Kurama to see it more distinctively, it stopped and sat on the ground, giving him a death glare. _Silent treatment? Good._

“Here is your wolf, Bijū! I have to admit it’s a win-win situation for me, don’t you think Yama?”

Kurama threw a glance at his now summon, noting that said wolf, – Yama, right? – was getting gloomier by the second. Was he mute or just refusing to talk? Summons were usually doted with speech so he opted for the second option.

“I wouldn’t try killing this one though, they tend to come back like bad weed! BUAWAWAWAWA!”

Kurama winced and let a discrete sigh escape him. That wolf’s laugh was even worth than his breath.

“I am _delighted_ that this deal profits us both, but now that all is said and done, could you send me back to Konoha?”

The beast refocused his stare on Kurama, and immediately looked away, waving a paw as if he had already forgotten about his guest’s presence. “Yes, yes, I’ll send you back alright. Good riddance, and never come back here,” he huffed dismissively.

Kurama was about to retort with a snarky comment, but in the blink of an eye, the three of them found themselves transferred back to Ōkami's study, disposed in the same way as how they had been before. Yama was on his left, although closer than before, and he could feel Kuzu’s tails ruffling against his back when he sat back down, feeling weirdly tired all of a sudden.

Surprisingly, the open scroll on the table hadn’t moved, and neither had Ōkami, his dumbfounded stare going from one to the other.

Kurama frowned. “How long was I gone?”

That seemed enough to wake Ōkami from his stupor. “Not even a minute actually… I was wondering what to do. I don’t think it ever happened before, is the contract faulty?” – he looked at the scroll with suspicion, then at the two summons – “At least you successfully got your summ…–” He stopped, awe painted on his face when the tip of Kuzu’s nose emerged from behind his back, cautious.

“Is that a… fox? How did you manage to summon a fox with a dog’s invocation scroll?”

“Well… ” Kurama adverted his eyes, engrossed in the study of a small stain on the ground, “the thing is… turns out it’s not restrictive to dog’s summons. Apparently the stuff was faulty from the start and never discovered, since you guys take so few summons,” he added, mumbling.

Ōkami burst out laughing. “No way! I had no idea! To think we had such a scroll, and we don’t even use it that much, that’s such a shame!”

“Uh huh,” agreed Kurama, struggling to retain a yawn from splitting his face in two. It felt like the tiredness from the day had come back to him in a rush, crushing him under its weight.

“It’s good you got two of them though, that way you still have a Ninken to help perform the clan’s techniques.” He declared, turning to Yama. “This will be good for… “ He stopped, hesitated, then squinted his eyes at the animal.

Kurama pointedly decided to not look in the wolf’s direction, but he couldn’t stop Ōkami from taking a deep breath.

A silence.

“A fox _and_ a wolf? You really don’t do things in half measures, do you, Kurama-kun?”

“To my defense, I wasn’t given that much of a choice,” he grumbled. He was way too tired to plead his case any further, so he just waited for Ōkami's verdict, absently burying his hand in Kuzu’s thick fur. The vixen had silently glued herself to his right side, never letting Ōkami out of her sight, blatant proof that she never had interacted with humans before, and didn’t know how to react toward them.

“As long as you can work with both of them like partners, I don’t care what their species are. You can train with them at the common training grounds, but do refrain from bragging about it to other clan members. That scroll doesn’t need more attention than it should get before we can fix it or officialize it’s… uncommon characteristics.”

He became pensive. “Maybe I could have Uzumaki-san take a look at it, her Fūinjutsu is unparalleled now that Uzushio is no more.”

Annnnd that was Kurama’s cue to leave.

“If you’ll excuse me, I had a really long and exhausting day…”

“Ah, yes! Sorry! I will keep you out of my rumblings. Have a good night, Kurama-kun.”

He bowed his head. “Likewise.”

  
  


–

  
  


Finally lying in his bed, looking at the darkened ceiling in desperation, Kurama let out a tired sigh.

“Kuzu, would you stop snuggling me already? Or just quit moving for a damned second.”

A nose peaked from under the covers. “But the whole house stinks of humans!”

“It’s not and you know it. You’re only exaggerating. I will not throw you out on the condition that you at least stay still until sunrise. Deal?”

She whined as she went back under the covers, settling back against his side. Kurama waited for a short while but it seemed that the vixen was keeping her word and had stopped thrashing around, falling immediately asleep as a result.

Preparing himself to do the same, he threw one last glance at the furthest corner of his room, where Yama hadn’t moved from ever since they had entered the room, but the wolf appeared asleep – or at least was pretending to. With a dry chuckle, Kurama wondered why in the hell they had gone through all these lengths to get him summons instead of Ninkens, if it was only for his summons to refuse to leave…

Giving up on his train of thoughts, Kurama plopped his head back down on the pillow and wished for sleep to take him as fast as possible. He only had a few hours before him before starting the Ninken training…

His stomach growled. He didn’t even have the time or the energy to eat since his return.

  
  


Tomorrow was going to be a long day.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Some sources say that kitsunes gain one tail each time 100 years has passed, so since I based myself on it, you can deduce Inari and Kuzu’s age :p  
> -Yes, I know there is already someone named Inari in the Naruto universe, but I really like the name ok? :p  
> \- Kuzu (葛) = japanese name for the flower [Pueraria montana](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ac/Flowering_kudzu.jpg/800px-Flowering_kudzu.jpg). Yama (山) = mountain.  
> \- I didn’t give the giant wolf a name, Kuzu and Kurama literally called him something close to “honorable gigantic one” (I’m open to suggestions for a new name if you have ideas)  
> \- Kurama became better at managing his anger throughout the years during the war, he also knows when to bow down in front of authority, but if he doesn’t get what he wants he’ll do as he wishes anyway (but at least he asked...right?)  
> \- Kuzu is like a ventablack fox :p  
> \- Summons usually go back to their realms when their summoner sleeps but Kuzu and Yama have their own reasons for not going back.


	13. Artificial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zetsu's internal turmoil

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time for Zetsu's existential crisis! This chapter can be read as flashbacks from Zetsu's life up to this point.
> 
> I'm not really satisfied by this chapter, but I decided to post it anyway since it will become relevant later on. I love Zetsu's character and want to make him important in my story ^^ 
> 
> Tell me if you see any mistakes, and enjoy reading! :p

 

 

When Zetsu had been born, he hadn’t felt a thing.

It was dark, and then it wasn’t… – at least not as much – no grandiose awakening or dramatic grasp of breath, only the cold air of the cavern and an order, “get up.”

Searching for the voice like an automaton more than an action driven by emotions – he had none of those, then – he had realized he wasn’t alone. From the same spot he had emerged from, others came out, white silhouettes highlighted by the darkness surrounding them.

Zetsu’s first thought had then been, “do I look like that, too?”

  
  


–

  
  


Their creator – he had said his name was Uchiha Madara – constantly had them sent to the surface, collecting all sorts of information about the humans that lived up there.

It was easy for them, they could sneak up almost everywhere without being noticed, covering long distances in the blink of an eye without tiring.

They excelled at what they had been born to do, serving the man that had given them life.

That had to be enough… right?

  
  


–

  
  


Time went by, Madara’s health slowly but surely getting worse each passing day, until one of them brought back the severely damaged body of a young boy.

When Madara asked Zetsu’s counterpart for an explanation on why there was half a body emptying itself of its blood on the cavern floor, it explained that Madara would probably be interested in the boy, since he possessed a similar red eye.

At that, Madara had paused for a moment, seemingly lost in thoughts.

“Surface excursions will be reduced for the time being, all of you will take turns to focus on healing this boy and notify me when he either wakes up or dies.”

The decision was met with nods of approval, and they all went to work.

  
  


–

  
  


“The boy’s condition is stabilizing, we assume he will wake up in a couple of hours.”

Zetsu was standing still in front of Madara’s chair, waiting for his next orders. It had been his turn to care for the boy, and he was now delivering his report about the younger Uchiha’s condition.

“Good. Grafting artificial humans’ skin cells to his wounds appears to be working well.” Madara smiled, content. It was a rare occurrence to see their creator seem so pleased.

“I want all of you artificial humans to resume gathering intel on every single countries, this time you will be only focusing on the Five Great ones…” – Madara let his gaze fall on Zetsu – “but two of you will be assigned to the constant care and surveillance of the boy while the others are out. I already named the first one, you will be the second.”

“From now on, you will be named Zetsu.”

 

 

Ever since they had been born, Zetsu had viewed Tobi as an oddball – an expression he had learned only recently from shinobis he had been spying on – be it for his look or his personality.

All of them were born with slight differences, one was taller, another one wider, a lot of them even grew spikes out of their sides… that helped differentiate them apart, but in the end, they all looked quite similar.

Except Tobi.

There was no clear explanation as to why he was so different, and Zetsu had trouble putting a finger on what he was feeling towards the other one… it didn’t make sense. As artificial humans, every single one of them had been created to be superior to the human race. They were flawless! And equals.

But, he just knew that – maybe – if given the chance, he would have liked to trade places with Tobi.

Because Zetsu was the most plain looking one, and Tobi was the one who stood out the most. It didn’t come as a surprise that Madara had picked the two of them to take care of the boy, they had been the easiest to differentiate from each other.

Now that he had a name, maybe he wouldn’t feel so _plain_ anymore…

  
  


–

  
  


“The boy is exceeding my expectations in terms of healing, I think we can pass on to the next stage. This will be an opportunity to test the full potential of Hashirama’s cells and gain the boy’s trust at the same time.”

Tobi was currently monitoring Obito’s rehabilitation and most of the others were probably out collecting all sorts of information, while Zetsu was standing in the statue’s room, facing Madara’s sitting form.

He had a slightly bad feeling about this meeting, but he couldn’t explain why. Maybe because _feelings_ were all too new for him, hard to grasp.

Madara continued, not seeing or refusing to acknowledge Zetsu’s discomfort.

“It would take too much time and be too imprecise to grow an arm and an eye by themselves with the cells, so we will collect them already formed, and graft them onto the boy. We could even try to graft the entire right side of his body”

Zetsu knew the answer to his question, but he still bothered to ask. “Who will you collect the parts from?”

Madara lifted the scrutinizing gaze of his singular red eye on him. It amazed Zetsu how the man could possess a stare that look like a burning furnace, yet could chill the entire room they stood in. “You have the most human-like structure, your right side – save for your leg – and your left eye will be given to Obito.”

Zetsu acquiesced. That was a good thing for Obito. If the boy was lucky the graft would hold and he’d be able to regain his past strength. He could even go back to his village and become a ninja again.

If Madara let him go.

“When will we begin?” he inquired.

“I have instructed Tobi to slip a potent sleeping pill and anesthetic in his water after their training. We begin as soon as he is unconscious.”

Zetsu was fine with it, he didn’t feel pain anyway.

At least, not as much as humans, he supposed.

  
  


–

  
  


In the end, only the grafted arm took on Obito, but that was already better than what they had excepted, so Zetsu was glad.

The whole process of having his right side ripped out of him by Madara had been somewhat painful, but had allowed Zetsu to realize he could modify his own structure as he wanted, so he took it as a compensation, of sort. Now he harbored an assortments of pointy spikes all over his body, which he was quite proud of.

Not being able to restore his right arm and eye as quickly had been annoying, but he could manage.

He had been made malleable. He could adapt to anything…

  
  


And yet…

  
  


A stranger had infiltrated their hideout and killed their master and creator, as well as the other artificial humans that were in the hideout at the time.

And when that obscure being with eyes disturbingly similar to his own had appeared out of Madara’s dying body, threatening Obito, Zetsu had frozen.

He had _froze_ _n_.

Then he had been used around like a puppet to fight the same stranger that had murdered the old Uchiha only a few moments ago, blood still fresh and dripping from his mouth. He would have loved to kill the red eyed murderer for what he had done, but he had wanted to do it of his own free will, not like this.

When he had finally been released, he had realized something.

Well, it was more a hunch than anything, a suspicion, that developed as time went on…

The feeling that the man – Kurama – knew more than what he let on. He also probably knew about the black being too, and how it had managed to control them like mindless puppets. He had to find a way to force the truth out of the man somehow.

  
  


–

  
  


As of now, a whole month after they had met for the first time, Zetsu still had no leverage to demand anything from Kurama free of charges.

Right after their arrival at Konoha, Zetsu had caught the man leaving the village, putting a well made clone in his place as to not give rise to any suspicion. Following him, he had discovered the man seemed really adamant on thoughtfully destroying all proof that their hideout had ever existed.

Empty hideout, he had noted in surprise. Zetsu was sure a few of his peers had survived Kurama’s first ‘visit’, since some of them had been sent out for explorations a few days prior, but they had still been as conspicuously absent then as when they had all left for Konoha… 

Where once they had arrived Kurama had suspiciously done everything to avoid being seen departing from the village almost as soon as they had been left alone… but since none of them three had technically been forbidden to leave and he wasn’t acting as a spy for another village, Zetsu couldn’t count it as blackmail…

Yet, he still hadn’t given up.

Spying all around Konoha in order to dig up as much dirt on Kurama as possible had also allowed him to learn some new things about Konoha. Seemed like the all powerful village wasn’t that different from his less fortunate neighbors: clan dissensions, skeletons in the higher ups’ closets, shady laboratory under the hospital, an army of brainwashed children… the list went on.

Zetsu doubted Konoha’s dirty secrets would spike Kurama’s interest, especially since he had been unable to gather compromising information on the Inuzuka clan, but maybe some news regarding the local Jinchūriki would grab his attention?

It hadn’t escaped Zetsu’s attention a few weeks back how Kurama had discretely hidden himself behind Zetsu’s back to hide away from the hot tempered red head that had reunited with Obito. That small event shouldn’t have been so memorable in itself if the woman hadn’t turned out to be no less than Konoha’s one and only Jinchūriki.

How did Kurama know her? The information regarding her true nature was well kept and not talked about in the streets. And why did he seem so wary of her?

He wanted to learn more about that woman, and even if spying directly on her would put him at risk of being driven out of Konoha…

He decided that was worth the risk.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -It is said in Naruto that Zetsu and Tobi were gifted sentience (probably to take better care of Obito and be better at applying Madara’s orders), but it is never said explicitly how or from whom. Since Madara thought he gave life to the artificial humans when in reality it was Black Zetsu (I hinted it at the beginning of the chapter), I think he was also the one to give them intelligence (or maybe it’s just their old human nature resurfacing...)
> 
>  
> 
> My headcanon on Zetsu and Tobi:  
> \- They feel pain when injured, but can chose to ignore it (except if they suffer significant damage)  
> \- They can modify their bodies the way they want, but for it to be permanent and durable (unlike a simple shapeshift/henge) it takes more time to form.
> 
> Me, ranting about writing the next chapters: some characters' age don’t make any sense omfg


	14. Check for snake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very short chapter this time, but I had a whole week of holidays recently so I've got plenty cool stuff to publish in the next few weeks!  
> I only just went back to work and already miss writing and drawing all day long... *sigh* 
> 
> Anyway! I hope you guys are not going crazy in quarantine, and enjoy reading this chapter! :D

 

A dango stick in one hand, a kunai in the other, Kurama made a face. _Another_ missed target-center. Better than a few weeks ago, but still… serious improvements would have to be made.

He dodged a kick with ease.

Maybe he could practice his aim like Naruto did, with as many clones as possible? He had the chakra to do so, after all, and knew the hand signs by heart. The added overall experience would be a good way of speeding up the process… but right now that particular technique was a forbidden one, and it would be difficult for him to explain how he knew of a jutsu that Hashirama Senju himself sealed away for the greater good.

A fireball the size of a fist flew at him, which he evaded with a simple step to the side. He was about to go back to his practice when a burning smell alerted him that the lousy shot had still managed to set fire to a few strands of his hair, snapping the string holding his mane in the process.

_Seriously?!? After all the efforts it took to put up a ponytail that would finally hold his crazy Uchiha hair?_

In annoyance, he threw the only kunai that was left, wincing when it missed his target, and furiously stuck the wooden dango stick in his mouth to liberate his other hand.

Time to do what he was paid in sweets to do. Kicking some Uchiha ass.

This time, when Obito came at him, he returned the blow instead of dodging, hitting the boy square in the chest. Letting out a grunt of pain, his small frame wavered and disappeared, replaced by a log.

Seems like the boy was finally starting to put some variety in his attacks, but that was still far from enough to get a solid hit on Kurama. Leaves rustled faintly behind him, but Kurama didn’t even bother turning around. It was time for Obito to finally learn the consequences of a failed sneak attack.

  
  


Looking down on a heaving Obito on the ground, Kurama sneered at him.

“How many times have I told you to be more quiet when you attack? I’m pretty sure even that old baker lady of yours could have heard you coming!”

“Don’t be so meeeean Kurama! I’m doing my best here!”

“Not good enough. You want to be extra and flashy when you fight, that’s your main flaw. You’re not going to impress anyone if you end up losing anyway, go back to the basics and practice until you master them perfectly. Chakra control, observation, controlled use of clones, accurate weapon throw…”

“That’s rich coming from you,” the boy mumbled under his breath.

Kurama’s eye twitched. “What was that Obito?”

“Nothing! Nothing at all–oh hi Kuzu!”

True to herself, the vixen completely ignored the Uchiha and trotted through the training ground, to finally post herself next to Kurama, waiting.

“Obito, go refresh yourself, we continue in ten minutes.”

  
  


Once the boy was out of earshot, she jumped on Kurama’s shoulders and nestled her head next to his ear, tickling his neck with her fur.

“I found the entrance to this Root organization you talked about, Kurama-sama,” she whispered.

“Good.” The division was still officially known and active, but Kurama doubted many knew its actual location and ramification, as well as its importance inside of Konoha’s politics and spying services. “Did you manage to go inside?”

She shook her head, nearly poking Kurama’s eye with her snoot. “I tried to follow the one-eyed man, but even if humans can’t see me or sense me, they installed presence alerting tags everywhere, and I can’t bypass those…”

Kurama grunted, disappointed. “Not your fault, better be careful and not alert them someone’s spying on them,” he declared, patting her head. “Discovered anything else of interest?”

“Well… I saw the Root man training a kid in the forest. But I didn’t want to get too close – just in case – so I don’t know what they were talking about.”

_Danzō, training someone himself? That kid must be someone special._

_Could it be…?_

“Kuzu, can you continue spying on him for the time being? And try to get the kid’s identity, if you can.”

“Yes, Kurama-sama.”

She seemed pensive, so Kurama kept quiet, giving her the time she needed to formulate her thoughts. “I don’t know if that is relevant information or not… I still ignore a lot of things regarding ninjas, and humans in general.”

“Humans are complicated, that’s normal,” he reassured her. “What did you notice?”

“Well, of all the ninjas I’ve seen sparing or fighting, that boy was the only who could manipulate wood… Is it useful for you to know that?”

Kurama stared at her, once again amazed by her talents. He caught the sides of her face and squished it, laughing at her embarrassment while he praised her.

“You’re incredible, Kuzu! You know that?”

“Kurama-samaaaaa…” she whined, interrupted by Obito’s return. He gave her one last wink, and went back to torture the young Uchiha.

  
  


–

  
  


“By the way Obito, why can’t your sensei _still_ not train you himself? He can’t possibly be on a mission again.”

“What? Oh no no, Minato-sensei is on the list of people that could potentially become the next Hokage – how cool is that, right?? – so he’s really busy having to present himself to all the Jōnin, the Daimyō, the Council…all that stuff.”

Kurama stopped his bottle halfway from his mouth and eyeballed Obito, caught off guard. “Minato’s almost Hokage already??”

The boy waved his hand in a vague gesture. “Minato-sensei is the best option for sure! But that Orochimaru has a lot of support too, so it’ll be a real squeeze.”

This time, Kurama almost choked on his drink.

“Orochimaru is still here?!?”

“What do you mean, did he leave? And you know him?”

“Hum, I…” He panicked, attempting to correct himself. “I thought I overheard some people in the village talking about someone with the same name leaving for a while, you know, maybe a long mission or something?”

“Oh. Okay. Well he’s actually in Konoha right now.”

Thank Kage Obito was denser than a rock.

Still, he had made a mistake. For some reason, he had thought Orochimaru had already defected from the village, and that his concern should be focused on Danzō only…

Shit. The both of them probably even worked hand in hand too, damn it. Making a mental list of his options, he realized Zetsu would be the best one to go spy on the bastard, but immediately let go of the idea. Zetsu had been pestering him for _weeks_ about whatever ‘ _truth’_ he was expecting Kurama to give him. About Madara, Black Zetsu, Kaguya, and all other fucking things Zetsu should _definitely_ not learn about…

Kurama finally decided it couldn’t hurt to send Kuzu monitor what the snake was up to. Yama was skilled enough too, but he couldn’t hide his presence as well as the vixen, making the latter the best choice.

Kurama could lay low and wait until Orochimaru’s nasty experiences would inevitably be discovered, but better be prepared in case the man decided to act differently this time around…

The bastard _was_ unpredictable, after all.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit we reached 400 kudos! I wanted to thanks everyone who left a kudo/commented/subscribed or even put a bookmark, it means the world to me!
> 
> -Me, writing: "Never in my life have I thought I would spend so much time on narutopedia to write a fanfic…" (bless that website, it's saving my butt)
> 
> -Next chapter will introduce a new character's POV! (not an OC) Stay tuned :p


	15. (Un)lucky strike

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter once again, but I compensated by writing a novel as end notes ^^" 
> 
> New characters enter the scene! Enjoy :p

 

Throughout his life, Aoba had always prided himself in being a fairly positive guy. For him, the glass was half full rather than half empty, and giving up or running away had never been an option to consider.

Up until now.

Now he was almost considering defecting from Konoha just to avoid the wrath of the tiny four-legged furor that was chasing him throughout the village day and night to torture him.

Some times he was haunted by horrible monsters, each one more scary than the last, other times _he_ was the one everyone seemed afraid of and avoided.

After three days of wide-awake nightmares, he had begun to suspect he had fallen victim of some sort of illusions cast on him – other than Genjutsu, or he would have realized it – his supposition reinforced by a new discovery: the fox he had accidentally stepped on a few days ago was actually a powerful summon.

He had only stepped on one of her tail a little bit! – which had turned out to be two tails, how could he have missed that? – He even had planned on checking thoroughly the poor animal for any injury but she had run away immediately after.

Fortunately, the horror of the nightmares had tuned down considerably after he had managed to find the summoner of the black devil, and explained his situation with plenty of cries and apologies. Said man had heartily laughed at his misery, but he must have talked to the fox anyway since Aoba’s quality of life had improved – a tiny bit – since their conversation.

“Raidōōō….” He whined, dragging his friend’s name for a few heartfelt seconds, “Help me out on this, I can’t take it anymore!”

“Maybe it’s karma and you deserve it, must have done something to a fox in your previous life,” mused Genma from the couch, munching on a senbon like his usual self.

At Aoba’s desperate cries, Raidō threw an accusative glance at his friend before punching his shoulder. “Stop torturing him any further, Genma! That’s not helping!”

“If he stopped whining and focused on finding a solution though…”

“Stop.”

“But that’s why I came to you guys in the first place! You’re both already Chūnin and way more intelligent than I am, I was sure you would be able to find a solution...” he pouted, “but guess I was wrong in the end.”

Genma sighed, not in the least impressed by his friend’s antics, but still pushed himself upright in the couch, facing Aoba.

“You could find something that pleases him.”

“Who?”

“The fox, you idiot! Are you even trying?”

“Genma, chill.”

“Shut the fuck up Raidō you do not get to tell me–“

“It’s a _her_ you know…”

A surprised pair of eyes turned to him. “How do you even know that? Now I’m beginning to think that fox isn’t pestering you for no reason…”

“Noooooo no-no-no I didn’t do anything! Her summoner told me!” He had turned as red as a tomato in a split second. “You guys are horrible emotional support, you know that?”

“That’s what friends are for, dummy.”

“His suggestion still holds, though. You could try to find something that she would enjoy, and gift it to her.”

Aoba became pensive. That was a good idea, but what could a fox possibly want? Food? Head scritches maybe? Guess he would have to ask her directly when she would deign to show herself to him again…

He could only pray for it to happen soon.

  
  


–

  
  


It took more than a week for the small black fox to appear in Aoba’s field of view, so when she finally did, he panicked and shout out in her direction.

“I’M EXTREMELY SORRY FOR WHAT I DID!! I REFLECTED ON IT!! I WILL APOLOGIZE AS MANY TIMES AS IT TAKES IF YOU LET ME PLEEEEeeeease…?” He had closed his eyes, hoping with all his being he hadn’t scared the vixen away with his shouting. _Why did he shout? That was so stupid of him, now she would never_ **ever** _get near him again and there was now no way to stop the_ –

“What do you want, filthy human?”

Aoba’s eyes shot open, not believing the fox was effectively in front of him. He could almost cry of relief if he wasn’t so scared of making her run off. He had to be very careful about this.

“I… I am so sorry for what happened last time, I really hope your tails are okay and if it’s not I can take you to you see a med–“

“It has nothing to do with my tails!!”

“It… what? It doesn’t?” Aoba was confused now. Wasn’t it the reason why she took vengeance on him in the first place?

“You managed to get a hit on me, and that is unacceptable.” Her stance was stoic and proud, even though she didn’t even reach the teenager’s hip in height. It was odd to think the devil chose such a cute appearance to hide itself in…

“Oh…” An injury meant she hadn’t been on guard, and it hurt her pride as a summon. “Well we can spare to settle this if you want, I’m pretty sure you would beat my ass…” He scratched his head, anxious about her answer. “Or, you could just tell me what you want me to do to apologize properly… I promise I will do anything in my power to give it to you if it means stopping the everyday nightmarish hallucinations.”

He was serious about his proposition. He couldn’t possibly hope to become more than a Genin if he had to spend his days and nights trying to distinguish illusions from reality.

The vixen seemed pensive.

“Well, there _was_ something that could be nice to possess…”

“Yes??” He inquired, hopeful.

“I think I would like to have human hands like yours.”

Aoba blanched. “You… you want to cut off my…” – he gulped – “… my hands…??”

“Are you dumb?! I have no need for your severed hands, I want _me_ to be able to transform into a physical human, not just the illusion of one.”

The teen was at a loss for words.

“Uhm… I think… I think that could be done with a modified clone technique or something, but… uuh, I don’t know if summons are able to use techniques that are made for humans…”

She looked daggers at him, making his hands sweat and his knees wobble a little.

“Find a solution, then!” She exclaimed as she turned around, her tails gracefully flicking around in annoyance.

“I’m giving you three days of peace, if after that you haven’t found anything I shall return and send you back to hell.” And with that last threat, she disappeared.

  
  


Coming back to his senses, Aoba reflected on the ridiculousness of what his life had become.

_Well then_ , he thought, _he had exactly seventy-two hours to find a solution to this thorny issue…_

  
  


“I really wish the library doesn’t close at night…”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I know, I already talked about this....but (*sigh*).....most of the characters’ age make NO sense at all.  
> I decided to go with Aoba, Raidō and Genma’s canonical age for this one because I like it that way: (for other characters that will maybe appear I might change it at my will)  
> Aoba = 16-17  
> Genma = 16-17  
> Raidō = 17-18  
> -I’ve changes my pace a little bit, the next chapters will be usually shorter like this one, but coming out faster… what do you think? (don't worry I will write longer ones if they include a lot of action/fighting)
> 
> WARNING  
> -As the same time as I published this chapter (24/04/20), I went back and modified a (small) part of chapter 13, the one about Zetsu (actually wanted to write it that way since the start but forgot to add it ^^”)  
> If you are interested in reading the modified part but don't want to go back and read it all, here is the concerned part:
> 
> "Right after their arrival at Konoha, Zetsu had caught the man leaving the village, putting a well made clone in his place as to not give rise to any suspicion. Following him, he had discovered the man seemed really adamant on thoughtfully destroying all proof that their hideout had ever existed.  
> Empty hideout, he had noted in surprise. Zetsu was sure a few of his peers had survived Kurama’s first ‘visit’, since some of them had been sent out for explorations a few days prior, but they had still been as conspicuously absent then as when they had all left for Konoha…  
> Where once they had arrived Kurama had suspiciously done everything to avoid being seen departing from the village almost as soon as they had been left alone… but since none of them three had technically been forbidden to leave and he wasn’t acting as a spy for another village, Zetsu couldn’t count it as blackmail…  
> Yet, he still hadn’t given up."


	16. Hell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: blood, gore, self harm, more blood

 

 

 

 

 

 

Endless darkened sky.

            Endless plowed earth before him.

Soil so dark it looked charred.

Stench of blood and rotting bodies clinging to his nose and tongue.

  
  


His tails flinched. He was feeling trapped, he couldn’t breath- why-was he Here whAt wasHapPEniNg to

  
  


  
  


                                                                              Endless darkened sky.

                       Endless plowed earth before him.

Soil so dark it looked charred.

Stench of blood and rotting bodies clinging to his nose and tongue.

Hair obstructed his vision. His fingers twitched.

  
  


He looked down.

The ground wasn’t actually black.

            Darkened brownish color akin to–

                                                        –sticky, swallowing him whole

Was          he sinking?

Stench of blood and rotting bodies clinging to his nose and tongue.

  
  


He couldn’t move

Couldn’t move Couldn’t move Couldn’t move

            Couldn’t movewhy was hesinking? Stuck in plac–sinking

  
  


Endless darkened sky

Endless plowed ~~_bodies_~~ before him.

            Blanched moon, so so so so so so so so so so white

                                  Smiling at him

                                             Ivory teeth–sohungryhungryhungry

  
  


Blood and rotting bodies clinging to his nose and tongue

M ov

            E

                                  D A

                                                        m

                                                                   Ni

                                                                                         T

 

  
  


                                                                   Cracking bones under his feet, squelching of mangled flesh

                                  White moon laughing at him

                                             Blood on his tongue

Endless darkened sky.

 

            Endless battlefield before him

 

                                  Rotting bodies on his tongue

  
  


E

            n

                       d

                                  l

                                             e

                                                        s

                                                                   s

                                                                                         **s**

                                                                                                    T

                                                                                                               **o**

                                                                                                                          P

  
  


He yelled

Deafening

Silent so loud

So much blood-sticking-to-him-so-redblackstopstopstop

why am I here stop stop stop no so much blo-did I kill them?blood blood tastes amazing so good feels like throwing up liked it so so so so muchstop stop stop stop

stop white white so brightstop-red-black-red-black-red-black-red-black-red-black-red-redbla-ckredblackblackredblerdbedblackrbarelckrackdrkercakcedakcrdkreacksrdekcaREDBLACKREDBLACKRDEACKSREDBDLACKREDLARK

  
  


**R            e** _**D** _

  
  


**_B_                       l            a                       **

**C _k_**

  
  


  
  


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
  


  
  


**yellow.**

  
  


  
  


 

 

 

 

 

  
  


Clump of hair

                                  sticking out

                                                                   dirtied

  
  


Attached to a            head

                                  needed to see

  
  


                                                                                                    which head

Yellow

            bright

  
  


                                  warm

**DirTy**

                                                          sinking

  
  


His tails flinched. He was feeling trapped, he couldn’t breath- why-was he Here whAt wasHapPEniNg to

  
  


                                             Endless darkened sky.

Hair obstructed his vision. His fingers            twitched.

  
  


Yellow, focus on yellow, move

            Blood on his tongue

                       So far, need to reach it

                                  need to be sure

                                             Blood on his tongue

_**did he** _

  
  


                                                                   Blood on his tongue

                                                                   Blood and yellow mixing

                                                                   Blood everywhere

                                                        hair stuck between his teeth

  
  


stop stop stop

  
  


Cracking bones under his feet, squelching of mangled flesh

                                  White moon laughing at him

            on his tongue

Endless darkened sky.

  
  


                                                                   Moon laughing at him

Please don’t be blue

                                                                   Reaching for the head

Please don’t be blue

                                                                   Shifting slowly

                                                                                                    so

                                                                                                                          slow

Pleasedon’tbebluePlease

                                                        Mangled face

                                                                   eyes closed

                                                                              open them-no-open-no

NoblueNoblue

                                                                                         don’t want to know

  
  


White moon laughing at him

                       so loud

                                  he was sinking

                                                        bodies reaching for him

                                                                   needed to know

Please don’t be blue

Please don’t be blue

Please don’t be blue

                                                                              deformed mangled hands reaching for him

                                                                   dragging him down

                                                        he was sinking

HE NEEDED TO KNOW

                       skin melted

                                  head ~~_melting_~~ slipping from his grip

                                             please

                                             please

                                                        eyelids decaying, melting away

  
  


  
  


                                  accusing glare

            sorrysorrysorrysorry

Blood on his tongue

 

 

 

 

 

**Blue eyes**

  
  


 

Nononono

**Blue eyes                                  Blue eyes**

**Blue eyes**

**Blue eyes**

**Blue eyes                                                        Blue eyes  
**

**Blue eyes                               Blue eyes**

 

**Blue ey-  
**

  
  


corpses raising from the mud

            dirty yellow strands of hair

                       mutilated face

                                  Blue eyes

                                             hands gripping him, dragging him down on his hands and knees

                                                        sorrysorrysorry

  
  


Blue eyes

            **you** did this

nononononoNOpleaseNo

            your fault

  
  


            His tails flinched. He was feeling trapped, he couldn’t breath- why-was he Here whAt wasHapPEniNg to him

Needed to get out

                       out please out nEeded to get out out out out out out out out out out out out out out out            pleasewhat was happening he just wanted blood on

            his            tongue to    get     out he wanted blue eyes looking at him breath breath couldn’t            get enough blood on his tongueNonono please no he was sinking in the mud nononono blood filling his eyes filling his mouth Please No            hands dragging him down down couldn’t move            yellow strands under his nailssorrysorrysorry

            needed

                                  O

                                                        U

  
  


  
  


                                                                              T

  
  


  
  


 

 

 

  
  


  
  


  
  


  
  


  
  


  
  


“KURAMA!!”

Abruptly woken up of whatever trance he was in, he opened up his eyes, only to close them immediately after, blinded by the brightness of daylight.

_Where was he?_

_W_ _hat happened to him?!_

Focusing on his remaining senses, he realized a hand was firmly gripping his shoulder, injecting familiar chakra into his system. He jerked the hand away, not stomaching being touched at the moment.

His eyes flew open once again, meeting a singular red eye, twin tomoes wildly spinning.

Obito Uchiha.

Everything came back to him.

They had been sparing as they usually did after his Ninken training with Yama, but this time Kurama had been particularly harsh. He had been in an awful mood – couldn’t even remember why in the state he was in now – and the young Uchiha’s mistakes had only aggravated his temper.

_The kid wanted training? Well, he would get what he asked for._ Claws at the ready, he had gone for the head.

Obito hadn’t had time to react or protect himself. He had only looked at the hand closing in, his eye widening in fear of the blow.

That’s when his tomoes had started to spin.

Getting from the ground, he launched himself forward grabbed Obito by his throat and raised him from the ground, claws digging into the fragile flesh of his neck. Kurama’s balance was completely off and he tumbled, struggling with Obito’s weight, but he forced himself to stand his ground.

“You hypnotized me!!! How… how fucking **dare you** ,” he spat, trembling. “I **knew** I shouldn’t have trusted your kind!!” His eyes were starting to burn, forcing him to blink furiously to ease the itch. “Did you just pretend all along just to trap me in your Genjutsu and make me suffer _**again**_? Did you think it would be _**funny**_?! It would be _**entertaining**_?!!” He squeezed harder.

“ **ANSWER ME!!** ”

“K… rama, … an’t… brea… th”

A violent hit to his side made Kurama toppling over, releasing his grip on Obito.

He stayed on the ground, heaving.

“Are you crazy? Do you want to _KILL_ him?” Zetsu yelled at him, supporting a very pale looking Obito, a few drops of blood trickling down his throat and into his shirt.

“Of course I want to kill him!” He ignored how weak and high-pitched his voice sounded. He needed to scream. He needed to get it out. “Uchihas are the reason why my life became fucked up in the first place!”

“Stop being an ass and apologize! Obito has nothing to do with what his clan may have done to you!”

The artificial human had taken the first aid kit out of Obito’s pouch and had began tending to his injury.

So _attentive_ , so _caring_ for the psychotic mass murderer that he would inevitably become in the future. He had to, it was in his nature. It was making Kurama sick.

“Don’t pretend you’re protecting him! I know what you _are_ , Zetsu, what you _really_ are!”

That seemed to touch a raw nerve. “Well enlighten me!! What **am** I, _huh_?!!”

“You are and _always_ will be a puppet and a tool at the hand of others, you have no proper goals or emotions! You go from one Uchiha to another and follow Obito like a puppy because you’re so fucking empty on your own!!” He felt something warm running down his face, but he refused to acknowledge it and continued without even pausing. “You may have modified your appearance to look more like a real human, but let’s face it, you will NEVER be anything close to one, put your head out of the sand and accept the fucking truth!”

Kurama’s outburst was met with silence. They obviously hadn’t expected him to react so violently. Disgusted by their look of – was it _pity_?! – he furiously wiped his face with the back of his hand.

“Don’t ever cross my path ever again if your value your life. Both of you,” he warned in a low voice, before disappearing with a Shunshin.

  
  


–

  
  


In the privacy of his room, Kurama collapsed to the ground, back against the door.

Slowly, he took his face between his hands and curled up on himself.

Little by little, he finally let the sobs have complete reign over his body, shaking him from head to toe.

He couldn’t get the images out of his head, it only kept repeating over and over again, the inescapable nightmare swallowing him whole like the blood soaked mud. Not knowing if what Obito had showed him had been some of his forgotten memories or a figment of his Sharingan, was torture to him.

A voice in his head saying that maybe… there was a good reason why he couldn’t remember how the end of the war had turned out.

He drove his nails into the skin of his face, hoping to distract himself from his thoughts, but only succeeding in painting the floor below him with crimson droplets.

Blood. _Again_.

More tears fell from his face, mixing with the mess on the floor. He wanted to disappear, to stop existing and wake up, only to realize it all had been a dream to distract himself from the boring perfect life that Naruto was leading. Boring Hokage responsibilities. Boring everyday household chores. Boring couple’s quarrels. Boring peace after the end of the war against Kaguya.

But his Naruto had stopped existing the moment Kurama had been sent in the past. Maybe even before that…

_God_ , he missed Naruto. He missed him so damn much. He tightened his fists, piercing his quickly healing skin once again.

Kurama could have given everything to hear the boy’s voice again, telling him not to worry, that everything would be alright and turn out fine, but the quiet wet sound of droplets hitting the floor was his only companion.

  
  


  
  


He didn’t know how long he had been sitting there – probably a long time, seeing how he almost couldn’t feel his legs anymore – or how many times he had carved up his skin already, when the discreet taping of feet alerted him he wasn’t alone anymore.

He didn’t bother looking up.

“Leave me alone Kuzu.”

“But… Kurama-sama, you’re bleeding.”

“It will heal soon. Get out.”

Silence.

A shadow slipped between his legs, stepping in the pool of blood that had collected there, happily rolling itself in it.

Without thinking, surprising even himself, Kurama reacted in a split second and caught the vixen by the scruff of her neck, keeping her suspended in the air.

“Stop that! What’s gotten into you!? You’re getting blood all over yourself that’s not – Yama! Not you too! Where did you even come from??”

Kurama held Kuzu at eye level, trying at the same time to make a barrier of his body in front of the puddle, preventing Yama from rolling around in it. His stiff and cold body not easing his task.

He looked at the vixen suspiciously. “You’re responsible for this, aren’t you?”

She smiled innocently, but he didn’t let himself be fooled by any of it. Without letting go of her, he reached for one of his training shirts on threw it on the blood, pushing Yama out of the way and in the direction of his small bathroom as he got up. “I’m pretty sure none of you were in the room when I got in, how did you manage to enter? There’s no way you could have entered by the doors and last time I checked there wasn’t any hidden entrances.”

“The sliding door leading to the gardens is way easier to open,” she offered.

“Not buying it. It was locked and you still got paws, but whatever.” He caught Yama by the neck as well, hauling the both of them to the cramped adjacent room. Once they were both deposited on the tiled floor and he had made sure they wouldn’t run off, he started a bath and armed himself with a few rags, before returning to his room to wipe the mess he – _they_ – had made.

Once the disaster had been partially taken care of, he made back to the bathroom but stopped halfway, looking down at his hands holding the blood soaked rags.

He had bundled them up without care, and it now looked like an approximately round shaped ball, from which dribbles of blood escaped to the floor from time to time. The smell of iron was so strong now he could almost taste it on his tongue… it filled his nose, drowning every other scent that might have been present in the room up until now. He couldn’t tear up his gaze from the ball. An oval shaped ball. The form… the weight, the intoxicating smell of blood all of those reminded him, it was the same as if he was holding a decapitated human hea–

A loud noise made him jump.

“What the hell are the both of you up to?? I can’t even let you guys without surveillance for two damned seconds, can I?”

He rushed back to the bathroom, rumbling. “You better not be breaking anything.”

  
  


–

  
  


“Do you think he will ever forgive me?” Obito had been taken aback by Kurama’s reaction, and now felt guilty being the one responsible for his outburst. “ _Why am I making so many people cry lately?”_ The boy mumbled dryly. Zetsu threw him a look.

“Why would you even care about him, I don’t know if you realize he was about to _kill you_ , Obito! And stop squirming I’m trying to stop the bleeding.”

“He only grazed me! And I trapped him inside a Genjutsu – a pretty horrible one I think – … I didn’t even _know_ I could do that! Should I talk to Fugaku-san about–“

“Obito.”

“Yeah I know you don’t really like him – I don’t either actually, he scares me a bit – but if there is one person that could explain to me–“

“Obito!”

“What?!?”

“Your wound is already healed…”

Obito blinked at Zetsu a few times and passed his hand on his neck, checking in vain for the holes Kurama had made with his claws. “I know I said Kurama only grazed me but I didn’t think it was _that_ shallow.”

“It wasn’t!”

“Did _you_ heal me with your weird plant power or something?”

“Idiot, why would I have bothered with bandages if that had been the case.” Zetsu became thoughtful. “Maybe my cells are continuing to help your body regenerate faster, even after the graft healed?”

Obito made a face. “I cut myself with the kitchen knife more than a week ago and it still opens up every time I grip my kunai too hard. Doesn’t sound very ‘fast healing’ to me.”

“Fair point,” admitted Zetsu, “but maybe your arm and body weren’t fully healed yet, so it focused on healing that first and the smaller injuries were left alone…?”

“Wait wait wait! Does it mean I will magically heal any injury from now on?!” Zetsu could almost see literal stars shining in his eyes.

“That’s not…” It was obvious Obito didn’t get everything, but that was good enough for now. “I’m still not sure, but that would be the theory, yeah.”

Excited, the boy started to peel off the old bandage on his hand – his infamous knife injury he had been sporting for a while – looking like a kid on his birthday.

“Obito slow down I said that’s just a supposi–“

“Hey… Zetsu,” he interrupted, gaze focused on his hand.

“What.”

Obito looked at him, a mix of exhilaration and astonishment swimming in the black of his eye.

  
  


“The cut… it’s completely gone.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -Trust me editing this chapter on Ao3 made me suffer as much as Kurama  
> -I am NOT an expert about trauma/panic attacks/self harm...etc, feel free to correct me!  
> -Clarifications: Obito’s sharingan has already proven to be really powerful, so I gave him the ability to use Genjutsu even if he has only 2 tomoes... But he has absolutely no control over it. He activates it only using his defense’s mechanism, and it’s actually the person trapped in the Genjutsu who’s the one producing the illusions. In a sense, they are making they own nightmares with their own fears and/or painful memories.  
> -Zetsu wanted to use a first aid kit on Obito because even if he can transfer chakra from him to other people, he can't heal directly someone. Obito inherited Zetsu’s own healing ability thanks to the grafted arm.  
> -Kuzu and Yama know exactly what they’re doing by distracting Kurama, they are caring annoying furrballs.  
> -Any idea how they may have gotten inside Kurama’s room? :p
> 
> Announcement:  
> -For the people who liked my spicy chapter, I was possessed by the smut gods over the weekend and ended up writing an entire chapter of pure filth in 3 days… The pairing is Raidō/Genma and I will try to post it as soon as it’s corrected!  
> -I will post it as a stand-alone work since it's not necessarily related to my AU and can be read by anyone ;p

**Author's Note:**

> Tell me what you thought of the chapter, I love reading and answering your comments!  
> Leave kudos if you liked it ;)
> 
> I make art too! You can find me on:  
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/MadaYume)  
> [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/yume-mada)  
> 


End file.
